Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life
by Nightman
Summary: Pyron's on his way, Joe is training with Donovan, and Dami is scheming something evil... the final chapter of this story begins now!
1. The Meeting

**Disclaimer:** I do not own ANYTHING to do with Darkstalkers. If I did, I would have made a true Darkstalkers Anime _series_ to go with the "Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge". What? You haven't seen it? Go get a copy!

**Author Note:** This is NOT your typical Darkstalkers fanfiction. For starters, the "real world" is the world in which Darkstalkers is a video game. Some of the events in the "Darkstalker Universe" may be from the games and the anime, but the rest was designed and created by me.

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_**Episode 1: The Meeting**_

Two people are playing "Darkstalkers 3" on a large TV in a small living room. The room is filled with the sounds of fighting as the two characters wage total war on each other. The two gamers have picked Jedah to battle against Felicia and the Felicia user is up one to nothing in a best of three match. The Jedah user has pinned down Felicia in the far left corner of the screen and is moving in for the kill after being on the receiving end of multiple combos by the Felicia user.

"I'm gonna beat you this time!" yells out a young man. He whips away some sweat from his forehead before returning to mashing the buttons on a wireless Playstation 2 controller. "Your little cat woman is no match for "Jedah, the Demon King"!"

The player controlled Jedah jumps into the air and swings his super-sized scythe at a defending Felicia. The player does not realize that his opponent has just quickly pressed a series of buttons on his controller to activate Felicia's "Please Help Me" to counter the scythe attack.

Unable to block Felicia's kick, the Jedah user is forced to watch a small group of five other cat women appear and pound the hell out of Jedah's energy bar at the top of the television screen. The stunned Jedah rises to his feet and is met with Felicia's "Delta-Kick". This final attack seals her victory. Once Jedah's body stops moving, Felicia sits on the ground and nyans happily at her victory over the "Demon King".

"How many times to I have to tell you Jeff?" starts another voice. A large six-foot, two brown haired male stands up from a chair on the opposite side of the room and sets his controller down. "I can't be defeated using Felicia in ANY Darkstalker game!"

The defeated player leans over to shut off the PS2 and watches the system power down. "I have to admit Joe, you have gotten better at playing these 2-D fighters." He places the two wireless controllers on top of the prone gaming system before finishing his comment. "I can still remember how every time you played a fighting game you used to mash the buttons to win instead of using combos. Now you combo the hell out of everyone!"

"Yea well, I think we better get going." Joe states as he grabs his blue backpack and swings it over his right shoulder.

His navy blue short sleeve shirt is unbuttoned allowing a white V-neck tee shirt to show through. Joe reaches into the left pocket of his black jeans and pulls out a set of silver keys to lock the door to his room. As he removes the key, his younger brother Jeff is waiting for him at the back door.

"Come on Joe!" Jeff calls out to his brother. "I'm not going to be late for class because you had to get your video game fix at six in the morning!"

He looks at his left wrist that has a Pittsburgh Steelers watch on it. The time is fifteen minutes to eight as Joe jumps down the flight of stairs and runs out the back door to the car he barrowed from his parents for the day. Joe takes his position in the driver's seat and tosses his bag onto the backseat. The car roars to life as Jeff seats himself in the passenger seat. The vehicle travels down the road as the two brothers begin a new day.

(The "Darkstalkers' World")

Meanwhile, Felicia was lying under the covers of her bed and looking up at the ceiling of her room at "Felicity House". She closes her eyes and began to reminisce about the last few months of her life.

It has been three months since the supposed destruction of Jedah's evil plans. Even though the world witnessed the struggles of the Darkstalkers, there were still some groups of humans determined to exterminate all Darkstalkers good or evil. Many of her friends have vanished from the sight of humans and haven't spoken to her since Jedah's defeat. The other cat women who have fought alongside Felicia have decided to live with her at "Felicity House" once the peace was restored.

After the quick flashback, Felicia pulled the blankets off of her and stretched out her body. In order to keep the house going, Felicia kept her sister outfit folded in a small dresser so that she could venture into the local town, buy supplies, and talk with the children. Just as Felicia began to make her bed, a tall cat woman with a large ponytail enters her room with a worried look on her face.

"What's wrong Grace?" Felicia asks the eldest of the cat women.

"That witch Morrigan is here and wants to speak with you about something." answers Grace in a low but angry tone. "I still don't trust her."

Felicia lets out a small laugh at Grace's comment. "Just because she beat me in a fight doesn't mean you have to hate her Grace." She sets her pillow down on the bed as Grace walks over to her.

"She wanted to absorb your life-force Felicia." States Grace in a serious tone. "How the hell can you be so forgiving to someone who could have killed you?"

Felicia looks up at the ceiling searching for an answer then looks at Grace. "I guess that's the way I am." Felicia says with a smile as a large sweat drop runs down the back of Grace's head. She leaves the room to go welcome Morrigan. Minutes later the front door to Felicia's house opens and a cheerful Felicia greets a stunned Morrigan.

"Someone's feeling rather happy…or is it ditzy?" questions the aqua haired Succubus. She continues to stand outside the doorway as if something is holding her back. Felicia notices that Morrigan hasn't entered and becomes worried.

"Morrigan is something wrong?" purrs the concerned cat woman. "Is it about Demitri?" Morrigan shakes her head to disagree and removes some of Felicia's concern. "Then what is it?"

Morrigan looks up at the sky above Felicia's house searching for something. Felicia walks outside and copies Morrigan by staring at the clear blue sky. A large crow flies over them and prepares to leave its "mark" when Morrigan blows the animal into oblivion with her "Soul Fist". Felicia frowns while the charred remains of the crow smashes into the ground, turning into a small pile of ash.

"Morrigan, if you're here to start trouble…" sighs Felicia. "…I'm going to ask you to leave."

"The reason for my visit wasn't to remember about the past." Morrigan states as she throws her hair behind her. "I'm here to relay a warning from Demon World."

Felicia scratches her head in confusion. "What kind of "warning"?" She shrugs her bare shoulders at Morrigan's statement and yawns loudly. "If there was any danger, I would have smelled a change in the air or something. Besides, I'm not the inexperienced fighter you fought against before Jedah's arrival."

"Will you listen for a change?" screams Morrigan. Her loud voice rings through Felicia's ears, who covers them in fear and tries to recover. Morrigan calms down to finish her reason for being here. "There is a strange aura forming in the sky above your house. It is nothing we have seen since Jedah was defeated."

Felicia's eyes begin to enlarge at the sound of Jedah's name. "You don't think he could be coming back already, do you Morrigan?" Her fears about fighting so soon after the Jedah incident raise a silent alarm in her heart. "Pyron is returning, is that it?"

"No, this energy is different from both Pyron and Jedah." Felicia sighs a breath of relief as Morrigan answers her questions. "But, just make sure you keep your distance from any strangers that don't seem natural."

Felicia's ears begin to sag at Morrigan's motherly advice. "I'm not a child Morrigan…" A small vein at the back of Felicia's head began to bulge. "…I can tell who is lying and who isn't."

"Well just make sure you don't put too much trust in someone you don't know." With that said Morrigan jumped into the air and converted her causal clothes into her loosely fitted succubus outfit. She flew up into the air and using her key, Morrigan opened the gate to the upper Demon World and left the Earth.

Felicia began to think about Morrigan's warning about the strange energy surrounding her house. She looked up into the air and saw only a few clouds passing by. The wind blew Felicia's hair around playfully as a small cat girl runs up to her. The young cat girl is not noticed by Felicia and decides to pull on her tail hard.

"Nyan! Felicia, is it time to eat?" questions the tiny cat girl.

Felicia places her large paw on the girl's head and laughs. "Ok Pico, I'll go get breakfast started. You go set the table and call the others." She watches the little cat girl run back inside the house as the wind begins to kick up.

_Now I can smell something coming…_ Felicia says to herself as she walks back inside the house. _But, is it a change for the good? Or is there something else?_

(The 'real world")

"**Achoo!**" Joe sneezes onto his laptop. His keyboard and screen is now covered in a light film of body fluids. He pulls out a handkerchief and tries in vain to wipe his computer clean. "Dammit, I guess I'll have to clean the whole thing after work."

(End of Episode 1)

* * *

_Trailer for the next episode…_

Joe: Hi there! My name's Joe and I'm supposed to be sleeping in my own bed right now...What did you just say?

Felicia: You heard me…I said you're in "Felicity House". Is something the matter?

Joe: This can't be true… it has got to be some sort of dream…or is this all some sort of trick Jeff planned cause I owned him in the game? I'll kick his ass…if I ever find a way home that is.

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **_Episode 2: Joe's Arrival_**

Joe: Where the hell am I?

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**Author Note:** That's it for this Chapter/Episode. R&R and maybe I can get the motivation to write faster. 


	2. Joe’s Arrival

**Author Note: **This is to remove some confusion from the storyline. Joe is a 23-year-old student who is a junior at the local college. Jeff is a 19-year-old high school senior who like his brother is a skilled football player.The two "Worlds" are separate from one another and neither one knows that the other exists… until now that is. R&R!

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_**Episode 2: Joe's Arrival**_

Night has fallen on the small two story house of our soon to be hero's house. Joe has just finished working at his parent's restaurant and is busily cleaning out his laptop from sneezing all over it. His younger brother Jeff is out with some of his friends while Joe tends to his soiled computer. He looks up from the desk that is scattered with an assortment of computer parts and checks the time on his digital alarm clock that is perched on his nightstand next to his bed.

"Damn, it's all ready past 11 pm and I still haven't fixed this." Joe yawns and sets down his computer repair tools on the desk. He stands up and stretches out his back, which cracks several times, from his long period of sitting down. He stumbles over to his bed and falls face first into his blue pillow. "I can't believe I haven't fixed this damn computer yet…oh well."

Feeling tired, Joe kicks off his white sneakers and drops them next to his bed. He removes his navy blue shirt and hangs it on the back of the mobile chair at his desk. Leaving his jeans and white V-neck tee shirt on, Joe drifts into a deep sleep. Joe begins to snore quietly as his subconscious mind races through a dreamless state of darkness.

(The "Darkstalkers' World")

The clear night sky has been replaced with dark swirling clouds. Lighting and thunder crash through the late night air above the home of the cat women. Felicia was trying to get Pico and Nana out from under their beds. They were hiding under the bed in fear of the violent weather.

"Come on you two, stop being so childish." Felicia scolds the two frightened kits. "There's nothing to be afraid about." A sudden crash of thunder catches Felicia off guard who vanishes from the sight of the two cat girls. The two girls peek out from under the beds and finds Felicia hanging upside down from a wooden beam in the roof. Her claws have dug themselves deeply into the wooden beam.

"Now who's being childish?" The two girls mewed as Felicia lands in front of them. A small sweat drop sprints down the side of Felicia's head as she scratches her back of her head with one of her large paws.

Felicia sighs as she climbs into one of the beds. "Ok, I'll stay with you two until the storm passes." The girls transform into two small white cats and jump up on the bed. They lie at Felicia's feet and fall asleep after a few more claps of thunder. Felicia looks out the window into the black swirling clouds and is surprised to find no rain falling from the sky.

_Strange…where's the rain?_ Felicia says to herself. Once she finds that the girls are asleep, Felicia walks out of the room and outside to see what could cause the unnatural weather. _I hope that curiosity doesn't kill this cat._ Felicia walks into the dark woods next to the house and vanishes into the night.

Meanwhile in Demon World, Morrigan was busily searching through her deceased father's records in the grand "Demon Library" for any clues to the strange energy on the Earth. One of her loyal servants followed by Lilith, enters the room and are forced to fly over the piles of stacked books that litter the floor of the room. They find Morrigan at the far end of the library with her key about the open the "forbidden vault." Inside this vault lies the ancient book that holds every important event that has happened to the Demon World.

"Mistress, why are you searching your father's records?"

"The energy on the earth has begun to spin out of control." Morrigan reaches into the clothing and pulls out a gold key. _My father told me never to enter this room…but I have to if I want to find the source of that aura._

Morrigan inserts her key into the vault's old lock and turns it counter-clockwise. The heavy bolt on the vault slides open allowing the door to swing open. The three females enter the vault and finds a single book lying shut on a small podium made out of the bones of defeated enemies. It begins to glow with a dark aura as Morrigan approaches the ancient text. Suddenly, the book's front cover opens up and an unseen force blows around the pages in their bindings.

The book stops on a single page somewhere in the middle of the book's contents. Morrigan reads only a few paragraphs when she is consumed by sheer horror. She throws the book away from her and collapses to the floor. Lilith floats over to check on Morrigan's condition as the servant goes to place the book back on it's stand. Morrigan recovers just in time to see the servant picking up the ancient book.

"Don't touch that…" are the only words Morrigan can shout out before the servant's life force is absorbed into the book. The drained servant and the book crash to the floor. As if the book has a mind of it's own, the hardcover text floats into the air and rests back on the bony podium in the closed position. _So that's the "Demon Book"… I just thought my father was joking around when he said the book absorbs thelife force of thereader._ While Morrigan loses herself in thought, Lilith checks on the condition of her "sister".

"Morrigan, are you alright?"

"I'll be fine." The stunned succubus groans as she slowly stands up and walks out of the vault with Lilith trailing right behind her. She removes the gold key from the lock, which allows the door to reseal itself shut. Then, Morrigan raises the key to open a small portal to Earth and find the source to the strange energy. The key floats upward and then drops to the ground with a thud.

"What's going on around here?" Morrigan attempts to pick up her key and finds it "attached" to the ground by an unseen force. After a few minutes of wrestling with the stubborn object, Morrigan gives up on the key and takes off in the direction of the main castle. Lilith tries to keep up with the speeding Morrigan as she flies towards the castle.

"Morrigan?" Lilith questions the silent succubus. "Where are we going?"

"We need to speak with the elders before anything else can happen." Morrigan answers without turning to look at Lilith. She and Lilith fly at their fastest speed to reach their destination ASAP.

Meanwhile, back in the "real world", Joe is still in a deep sleep when his computer begins to emit a strange light that covers his entire body. The light shines in his eyes and causes Joe to crack open an eye to see who would dare to wake him up. Believing it to be Jeff, Joe throws a pillow at the light and knocks over the glowing laptop. Joe's face becomes pale white once he hears the sound of falling technology.

"Oh, shit." Joe jumps out of the bed and knells down next to the computer's cracked monitor. He starts to pick up the pieces as the light begins to glow brighter. _The neighbor's are gonna have a cow if I don't shut this off._ Joe goes to pull the plug and finds that the laptop is not plugged in to the wall socket. _The hell is going on?_

Joe reaches to shut off the monitor and feels his right arm goes limp. He looks at the arm and finds out that it is being pulled into the monitor. Struggling against the pull, Joe attempts to free himself from the relentless grasp of the light. The light engulfs the frightened human and Joe vanishes from his room without a trace.

Felicia has walked around the forest for about an hour when the lighting and thunder comes to an end. She turns around and begins to walk home when something catches her attention. A large black hole has opened up above the sky of her home and emits a small sparkle of light, which crosses the sky.

_It's a shooting star._ Felicia purrs to herself. She closes her eyes and makes a silent wish on the "star" as it travels across the cloud filled sky.

Suddenly, the object begins to fall towards the area of "Felicity House". Frightened for the safety of her friends, Felicia dashes back to the house in an attempt to beat the object and warn her friends. As Felicia comes within sight of the house, the object smashes into the ground with devastating force blowing Felicia and some small trees away. The explosion knocks the other cat women from their slumber and they rush outside to see what happened. Lucy is the first to comment on the situation.

"This better not be Felicia's fault." Says the bandana wearing cat woman who looks around for Felicia. "Where the hell is she anyways?"

An extra large crater has replaced a section of the forest next to the house and a small plume of smoke rises from the bottom of the crater. No one can be seen when suddenly a familiar voice calls out from the bottom of the crater to the group of cat women.

"Hey guys!" Felicia screams to her fellow cat people. "There's someone down here and he's hurt pretty badly." She looks up and finds the others just looking down at her. "Why are you just standing there? Pico and Nana go fetch me the first aid kit right away! Lucy come down here and help me carry him inside."

As the smoke clears, a seriously injured Joe is laying on his back at the bottom of the freshly dug hole. Blood begins to pool underneath his body as Felicia places a hand on his neck. A faint pulse vibrates from his neck against Felicia's hand while fresh blood runs down both his arms. Joe's left shoulder is bare while his right shoulder is covered in a mix of blood and dirt. He moves slightly from Felicia's touch, which removes some of her concern for the fallen human.

_At least he's still alive…_

The next morning, Joe slowly woke up and found himself lying in an unfamiliar bed inside a room that was definitely not his house. Sharp bolts of pain ran a marathon throughout his body as Joe tried to sit up in bed. As Joe sits up in the bed he finds his right arm wrapped in bandages and placed in a sling.

_What the hell happened to me? I feel so weak…_

The door to the room opens up and Felicia walks in. Joe looks up and spots the cat woman carrying fresh bandages in her arms. She walks over and sits down on the edge of the bed and begins to rewrap his wounds. Felicia is the first to speak.

"I'm glad you survived." Felicia comments as she finishes tending to Joe's injures. "You can't be human, because no human could have survived a fall from that high up."

Joe looks at Felicia with a blank stare on his face and attempts to answer her question. "I am a human and nothing more." Joe sighs and leans against the headboard of the bed. "Tell me, am I still asleep?"

"Asleep?" Nyans a confused Felicia. She places the unused bandages on a small table next to the bed. "You think this is all a dream?"

"I don't know… the last thing I remember was a bright light then sudden darkness."

Joe drops his eyes to the mattress. Felicia looks at the disheartened visitor and tries to change the mood. She stands up and heads over to the door and is halfway out when she stops and turns back to Joe. A smile comes across her face.

"You are welcome to stay here at "Felicity House" until you recover."

Something clicks in the back of Joe's mind as the name "Felicity House" is said by the cat woman. _This can't be happening… am I really in the world of the Darkstalkers? Or is this some huge trick designed out by Jeff?_

"Well anyways, I hope you recover soon…" Felicia stops and tries to search for a name.

"My name is Joe."

"I'm Felicia. It's nice to meet you Joe."

_Somehow I don't think thisis over just yet…_

(End of Episode 2)

* * *

_Trailer for the next episode…_

Joe: I'm living in a house with cat women… this has to be a fantasy cause I know cat people don't exist. Huh?

Felicia: Leave my friends alone!

Joe: What's going on here? Who could be attacking Felicia's home? sighs I can't let them get away with this!

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **_Episode 3: A Hero is Born_**

Felicia: Someone… please help me…

Joe: Wait a second… I'm not a Darkstalker, so where is this strength coming from?


	3. A Hero is Born

**Author Note: **For the reader's information: The names of the other cat people are Lucy (age 36), Grace (48), Pico (14), Nana (22), and Alto (20). In the DS universe, cat people age half as fast as humans (ex: cat age is 40 meaning 20 in human years). I added this because I received e-mails stating that people do not know who the other cat people are or their ages. If you played the games, they appear when Felicia's special attack "Please Help Me" is used.

Well it's time for Episode 3. Keep R&R people!

(Warning: Some harsh language! Don't say I didn't warn you.)

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_**Episode 3: A Hero is Born**_

It has been a few days since Joe arrived at "Felicity House". Even though Felicia has assured the others that Joe will not become a problem for them, Grace and Lucy have their doubts about the human's intentions. The younger cat girls have decided not to believe the idea that "all humans are against Darkstalkers" and have accepted Joe as their newest friend. Life was beginning to return to normal around the home of the six cat people and a human. Until Joe had to go shopping for thefamily of cat women.

To thank Felicia and the others for helping him recover from his injuries, Joe has taken the responsibility of going into town and buying food for everyone. "Ok Felicia, I'm heading out now." Joe shouts as he puts his white sneakers on. Lucky for Joe his shoes were pulled into the light along with him. Since the cat women have padded feet, shoes are a waste of money for them. As Joe heads for the door, three cat girls tackle him knocking him backwards. A loud thud catches the attention of the older cat women who check on the unplanned noise. Joe is seen lying on his back with a small pile of three playful little cat girls on top of him.

"Nyan! We wanna come with you Joe!" The three kits squeal as they allow Joe to get to his feet. He brushes the dust off of his clothes and answers the girls.

"You know the answer to your question." The three cheerful cat girls become depressed from Joe's answer. "However, I'll remember to pick up something just for the three of you." This cheers them up and they immediately tackle him to the floor a second time once he finishes his sentence. Felicia walks into the room and finds the girls on top of Joe. A small sweat drop comes down the back of his head as she enters.

"Come on girls, Grace needs your help to clean the house." The three girls run into the kitchen and leaves Joe alone with Felicia. He stands up and brushes himself off again as Felicia throws something at him. Joe catches the object and finds it to be a small wallet with some money in it. "There's money for food and the list is in a side pocket. Make sure you don't lose it."

"Don't worry, I won't." Joe says confidently as he stuffs the leather wallet into the left pocket of his jeans and heads for the door. He walks outside and finds rain falling from the sky. _Damn, I'm gonna get soaked… _Before Joe can enter the downpour, Felicia walks to the doorway with a black cloakfolded neatlyin her arms.

"You can use this to stay dry." She hands the cloak over to Joe who wraps it around his body. The makeshift raincoat covers just about all of Joe's body, except for his shoes. "Just make sure I get this back in one piece, ok?" Joe nods in agreement and takes off into the pouring rain. Felicia watches him until he leaves her sight and then Felicia goes back into the house. She shuts the door behind her and finds Lucy is leaning against a wall waiting for something. Lucy looks up and finds Felicia back inside staring at her.

"You better not think that way Felicia."

"What "way" Lucy?"

Lucy sighs before she answers Felicia. "You're beginning to fall for him aren't you?" Felicia's eyes grow large as she hears Lucy's statement. "You know humans could never understand us. That's why we are supposed to stay away from them."

"Just because some humans hate Darkstalkers, doesn't mean all humans think that way. What about the human you were friends with? Wasn't he…"

"Shut up Felicia." Lucy interrupts Felicia's statement. Her sudden anger leaves Felicia confused. "That was a long time ago and I have forgotten about him. I don't need to seek compassion outside our species."

Lucy heads for the stairs as Felicia is left speechless. She stops at the foot of the stairwell and leaves Felicia with one final comment about humans. "Don't fall in love with him Felicia… it'll only leave you heartbroken." As Lucy walks up the stairs, her words echo through Felicia's mind several times.

Meanwhile, Joe is busy shopping in town when a group of local villagers begin to shout at the back of the general store. He walks to the front counter with every last item on the list. As the shopkeeper bags and adds up the final total, the humans walk out of the store through a back door. Joe takes notice of their suspicious activity and asks the shopkeeper about the actions of the villagers.

"Hey, you know what's going on?" Joe hints to where the villagers were standing just a few minutes ago. The shopkeeper looks over and sighs loudly. "Listen buddy, if they're going where I think they are…"

The old shopkeeper answers Joe before he can finish. "They have hired a "Hunter" to remove any Darkstalkers from the area around the village." Joe places the money on the counter and heads for the door. The door rattles as Joe swings it open and looks towards the location of the cat women. A green beam of light comes up from the ground and cuts a path through the dark clouds in the sky. _A Spirit-ward…_ He turns to the shopkeeper and says, "Can you hang onto those things for a while?" The old man nods yes and Joe sprints as fast as he can run towards the beam of light.

_Those villagers must have hired someone who can cast Anti-Darkstalker spells…_ Joe exits the village and heads towards the path for the forest. He is stopped by a mob of villagers with pitchforks and torches. They block the only route to the house and close in on Joe. _I don't have time for this crap…_

Back at the house, a strange, black robed figure is giving Felicia a hard time. All of her attacks have been ineffective against the unwelcome visitor. The stranger has erected a Spirit-ward to trap all the cat women inside the house. However, Felicia was lucky to escape the house before the spell was completed and now she is fighting for her life. The other cat women watch helplessly as Felicia stumbles around from the resonating scent of the Spirit-ward.

The figure mocks Felicia as she regains her balance. "Feeling sick, eh kitty cat?" The figure begins to approach the weaken Felicia who takes an offense stance. "I see… so you are still able to fight? Well, I guess it's better for you to try and fail then just to give up."

Felicia jumps at the figure and attempts a mid-air "Delta-Kick" when the figure catches her foot stopping the attack cold with a black claw. Then, the figure slams Felicia down hard onto her back and throws her into a nearby tree. The stunned Felicia sits motionless at the base of the tree and struggles to find the enemy. A few seconds pass and the figure is found standing above her with a glowing ring in his hands. He throws the ring, which wraps itself around Felicia and pins her to the tree. She strains to free herself from the ring's grasp, which draws another laugh from the mysterious figure.

"Struggle all you want Felicia…for you are mine."

Shocked to hear her name by an unknown attacker, Felicia questions him. "Who are you?" The figure pulls the robe off to reveal a werewolf with black fur wearing a pair of navy blue sweatpants. The figure reminds Felicia of one of her Darkstalker friends. "Jon?"

"Never say that weakling's name in my presence again!" The black werewolf snarls. "I am Gallon. The true Darkstalker werewolf and your soul mate."

"Soul mate?" Felicia becomes angry with the black werewolf. "You expect me to love someone who attacks me and my friends without warning? No way!"

Felicia's rebellious statement angers the black werewolf who places his claws under Felicia's neck. "You're lucky my master wants you alive. Or else I would have taken you for myself." A grin comes across the face of the black werewolf. "Then again, what he doesn't know won't hurt him."

Several immoral thoughts race through Felicia's mind. _He wouldn't!_ The werewolf grabs a hold of Felicia's neck and begins to squeeze the life out of Felicia. The constant pressure causes Felicia to fade in and out of consciousness. She is unable to move her arms or legs due to her back injury. As her vision began to become blurry, a final weak plea was uttered from her mouth.

"Someone please help me…"

Felicia passed out and her head sank in front of her body. Her long hair flowed over the back of her shoulders as Felicia's tail laid motionless next to her left leg. The ruthless werewolf released the unconscious cat woman from the ring and watched her land on her chest. He makes comments about his work. "Beautiful, I shall claim her before anyone else!"

"Claim this!"

The lustful werewolf reaches for the helpless Felicia and is greeted with two feet. The sudden attack knocks the werewolf away from Felicia who recovers by spinning backwards onto his feet. He wipes a small trickle of blood from his mouth and is enraged at the sight of his own blood. "Who dares to attack me?" The furious werewolf looks at Felicia and finds Joe kneeling over her body.

"Felicia, answer me!" Joe places a two fingers on the right side of her neck and feels a weak pulse coming from a vein. "She's alive, but she's hurt badly…" He pulls the hand away and stands up. His open hand has now become a fist and shakes from anger. Just then, the black werewolf comes into Joe's view. "You're the one who did this to Felicia, aren't you?" The werewolf doesn't respond to him as Joe points a finger at him. "Answer me damn you!"

"I don't need to answeranything foryou human!" The werewolf dashes at Joe and swings a claw for his neck. Acting on impulse, Joe ducks under the attack and swings an uppercut for Gallon's face. His punch is avoided when Gallon uses his aura to counter Joe's attack. The aura sends Joe and the unconscious Felicia flying backwards. Joe catches Felicia in his arms and lands hard on his right shoulder. A loud crack is heard as the two bodies stop moving. Now Felicia is laying motionless on her back as the injured human tries to think of a plan.

Joe stands up and immediately grabs his left arm that is now hanging limp at his side. _Dammit, I think I dislocated my shoulder. _Not waiting for Joe to recover, Gallon uses his "Beast Cannon" and crashes into Joe sending him soaring through the air. He smashes through several trees, which then explodes and litters the ground with shattered wood. Joe tries desperately to stand but ends up lying down on his back looking up at the dark sky. He turns his head and finds Gallon walking slowly towards Felicia.

_Come on get up!_ Joe's body is immobilized from Gallon's assault. He finds his left arm is lying perpendicular to his body. A light breeze causes Joe to shiver. _This can't be real…am I going to die?_ Joe finds Gallon is now standing over the unconscious Felicia. _Something has to happen… dammit! It can't end this way!_

"I have my prize." Gallon reaches between Felicia legs and stops only mere inches from her body when a loud heartbeat echoes through the air. Gallon moves his claw away from the fallen cat woman and looks around for the source of the heartbeat. Finding nothing but Joe's motionless body he calls out to the unseen noise. "Who's there!" A look of panic comes over Gallon as no one answers him. The sound continues to grow louder. _What kind of power is this? It's stronger than me…impossible!_

"Believe it."

Joe rises to his feet as the sound stops. His short dark brown hair has been replaced with long silver colored hair that flows down against the black cloak to the center of his back. The recolored Joe grabs his left arm and forces the shoulder back into its socket. A sickening pop is heard as Joe regains control of his left arm. He opens and closes his hand a few times to make sure nothing is severally damaged. "I should thank you for releasing me, but then…" Joe looks up at Gallon who has backed away from Felicia. Joe's kind eyes have sharpened from a gentle brown into a raging aqua color.

"…there's no point in thanking a dead man."

(End Episode 3)

* * *

_Trailer for the episode…_

Gallon: This can't be happening! How are you stronger than I?

Joe: Because I don't attack the weak… however, I will make an exceptionjust for you!

Felicia: Joe, it that you?

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 4: Shinning Defender of the Night**

Joe: I will destroy those who use the dark for evil!

* * *

**Author's Note: **Didn't think the Black Talbain/Gallon would appear did ya? I promise to explain everything later and this will be the last Chapter for a while so just stay tuned because I will write more soon. So keep R&R! 


	4. Shinning Defender of the Night

**Author's Note: **Whooo! Here's a new Chapter for ya.

Ok, I know some people out there are confused about the last Episode so now I have to clear a few things before I begin.

One, I have been asked "How is Black Gallon alive? Didn't Jon kill him off?" Yes he did, but for this story the Black Talbain/Gallon is going to be named just "Gallon" to keep confusion to a minimum.

Two, who is the "master" Gallon, was talking about? Well that and Joe's unknown power will be explained very soon. So, just keep reading.

(Warning: Possible harsh language, you have been warned.)

* * *

**_Episode 4: Shinning Defender of the Night_**

The black colored werewolf watched as the converted human began to approach him. Joe was only a few feet away from the assailant when he caught a glimpse of the motionless Felicia. He grabbed the left shoulder of his cloak and threw it over Felicia as she laid face up on the ground. The soft cloak covers the unresponsive cat woman from the her to the base of her neck. Joe looks up at Gallon and stares him down. Rage and frustration runs through his aqua colored eyes as he speaks to the black werewolf.

"You cannot defeat me Gallon." Joe bends his neck to the left and then to his right cracking and loosening his body for the upcoming fight. He grabs his left and hand cracks all of his knuckles in one try, then he moves to his other hand and does the same. As he warms up to do battle with the black Gallon, he doesn't notice that Gallon has charged a large "Wolf Beam" and is ready to fire at him.

"Die human!" Gallon releases all of the stored energy at Joe in an attempt to end the battle before it can truly begin. The attack engulfs the human and explodes blowing a large section of earth and the forest into nothingness. "Ha! How's that for power?" A gust of wind blows the dust away to reveal an unharmed Joe standing only a mere six inches away from the edge of the freshly devastated area. _How did he avoid my attack? It has to be a…_

Before Gallon can complete his thought Joe catches him off guard and proceeds to slam a hard left into his stomach. The sudden attack knocks Gallon back a few inches and he grabs the midsection of his body as the effect of Joe's punch takes its full effect. As Gallon recovers, he tries to sense Joe's location by targeting his energy signature. The only thing Gallon is able to detect is Felicia's energy and the Spirit-ward that is still active.

Several tense and silent minutes pass since Joe disappeared from sight. _Where is he?_ Now Gallon is looking around him frantically trying to find his opponent before he can attack again. "Where the hell are you dirty human!"

Joe's voice echoes through the air a response that shakes Gallon to the core. "I'm behind you." Immediately Gallon turns around and fires off a volley of "Wolf Beams" into the darkness hoping to kill the strange human. His beams destroy more of the forest but are not able to produce the body of Joe. Gallon takes a step back and struck in the face by the heel of a white sneaker. He falls back and comes face to face with Joe. His aqua eyes burn through Gallon's mind as Joe begins to throw a long, continuous series of punches that knock the off guard werewolf around like a pinball. One last punch drops Gallon to his back and he forced to look up at the human who has just knocked him senseless.

Slowly, Gallon rises to his feet and prepares to counter-attack Joe's assault. "I won't allow you to defeat me!" Gallon charges at Joe and slams a right-handed punch to the left side of Joe's face. The attack forces Joe's face to look away as Gallon keeps his fist to Joe's face. Both of Joe's eyes are shut tightly as Gallon gloats about his successful attack. "Now what! There's no way you could go unharmed from a direct attack in a defenseless stance. Once I get through with you those cats will be next." Joe opens his eyes and looks at Gallon who throws a left punch for his face. This time Joe catches the punch in his right hand and tightens his grip on Gallon's fist. The werewolf is shocked that he cannot pull himself free from his opponent's grasp.

"Play time is over wolf boy."

Joe crushes Gallon's fist in his hand thus shattering every bone in his left fist into bone shards. The werewolf howled in pain and backed away from the silver haired human. He grabbed his hand and finds that every bone has been broken into fragments. Gallon is now enraged more than ever at the current condition of his hand after being broken by a human. The busted hand hangs limp at Gallon's wrist as he desperately tries to come up with a plan to defeat Joe.

_I have to come up with something or I'm dead…_ Joe slowly walks towards the crippled Gallon, his long silver hair sways back and forth as he closes in for the final move. A flash of light passes by Joe's aqua colored eyes which causes Gallon to panic and looks behind him for some kind of inspiration. He finds Felicia still lying on the ground with the black cloak she gave Joe covering her body. A sinister plan enters Gallon's mind as Joe closes in. Gallon turns around and enters a strange fighting position.

"You know, those cats that are trapped in the seal are going to die if they are not released soon."

"I'll save them after I end your life Gallon."

"Not if I kill your friend first!"

Joe stops and looks past the posing werewolf and realizes the current situation. "Gallon, don't do it!" Joe dashes for the black werewolf in hope of interrupting the attack. The ground begins to shake violently as Gallon opens his right hand and aims it at the fallen Felicia.

"**Dragoon Cannon"** A large flaming snake-shaped dragon crashes out of the cloud filled sky. It roars loudly and quickly descends towards the unconscious Felicia. Gallon laughs evilly as the completed attack approaches its target. "You have to make a decision human… the cat or her friends. Which is it going to be?"

Gallon turns around and is clotheslined by Joe's extended right arm. The stunned werewolf spins around the arm and lies motionless face down in the ground. _I choose both. _Joe vanishes and reappears standing at Felicia's side. The heat from Gallon's attack begins to affect the surrounding area. Grass begins to catch fire as the dragon closes in for the kill. Joe clenches his right fist and jumps at the descending dragon.

_Please let this work…_ Joe's right fist is empowered by an unknown energy. He draws it back behind his body and flexes his arm. **"Chaos Breaker"** Joe swings the glowing fist with authority and connects with the head of the fiery dragon. The collision deflects the attack away from Felicia and locks onto the Spirit-ward around Felicia's house. The redirected dragon crashes into the barrier and produces an extremely large explosion of fire and energy. Joe is midair when he is caught in the shockwave of the explosion and smashes him into the ground. As Joe lies on his back looking up at the clouds, his hair returns to its original color and length just as he loses consciousness.

A strange black shadow engulfs Gallon and pulls him into the ground as the other cat women rush to Felicia's side and hope for her safety. Only a few short steps away from Felicia, they find Joe lying unconscious without a single injury on his body. The two unconscious bodies are carried inside the house as the night falls onto the world.

Meanwhile, Gallon is still knocked out as his body floats in empty space. A hooded figure with a long black robe materializes into the empty space and pulls out a small black stone and points it at Gallon. The strange rock emits a violet aura and absorbs Gallon's body into the crystal-like object and vanishes. The unknown figure waves an arm and creates a viewing portal for his entertainment. A picture of the silver haired Joe protecting Felicia from the flaming dragon appears in the portal.

"Is the one this world has chosen to protect it? He won't last two minutes against me." The portal suddenly shatters into nothingness as the figure floats away from it. "Gallon proved his usefulness; he found the one whose body now houses the legendary "Chaos Stone". Now, all I have to do is remove the stone and my conquest of both worlds will be unstoppable!"

(End Episode 4)

* * *

_Trailer for the next episode…_

Joe: First, I get pulled into this world against my will. Then, I develop strange powers even though I'm a human. And now you're telling me that some psycho is after alegendary crystal inside my body?

Morrigan: That's the main idea.

Joe: (sighs) I guess the only way to stop any more destruction is to go home. _If there is a way..._

_Next time on _Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 5: Decisions**

Joe: Life can really suck... then again no one else has ever become the legendary "Chaos-Stalker" huh?

* * *

**Author Note:**That was along Episode eh? Well, time tocheck the list… introduce the main villain, explain Joe's power, and add the OC/Felicia pairing… uh, next Episode ok? Keep R&R! 


	5. Decisions

**Author Note: **I want to thank everyone that has reviewed so far. There will be a list of the OC attacks soon (once I can think of some more). And now for Episode 5 and the naming of the main villain! God, I make it sound like the Darkstalker version of Star Wars…

(Warning: May contain some harsh language and maybe some bloodshed…)

* * *

**_Episode 5: Decisions_**

Twelve hours have passed since Gallon's disappearance. Felicia and her friends are left clueless as they try to figure out Joe's power. They left Joe, who has been sleeping since his battle with Gallon, alone as they tried to decide on what to do with Joe. The sound of the front door slamming shut knocks Joe out of a comatose state of sleep. He yawned and walked out of his room inside the house to find everyone missing. "Hello?" _I wonder if everyone is still sleeping…_ He walked into the kitchen and found no trace of any of the cat women anywhere. _Where is everyone?_

Somewhere outside the house, Joe hears several familiar voices talking about him. Joe throws on his white sneakers that are now covered in a mix of grass clippings and mud. The bottoms of Joe's shoes are completely worn out from the battle with Gallon. _Note to self, wear better footwear when fighting Darkstalkers._ He makes his way out the front door and is blinded by the bright morning sunlight. After allowing his eyes to adjust to the light, Joe finds the six cat women in a small circle and talking about someone. As Joe walks towards the group, he can overhear a small part of their conversation.

"That human is far too dangerous to hang around with."

"But, Lucy he doesn't have any other place to go."

"Felicia, he's the one who beat down that Gallon character and defused the Spirit-ward. Morrigan may be right about his power being too much for him to handle."

"Not you too Grace."

The group finally notices that Joe is standing a short distance away and hears everything. _So, I'm dangerous now huh?_ A half-hearted smile comes across Joe's face as he looks down at the ground._ That's gratitude for ya. _Felicia tries to approach the depressed human and is held back by a claw belonging to Grace who simply shakes her head at the idea of going near him. Joe looks up and speaks to the cat women. "If I am that much of a risk to you're safety… I'll leave immediately."

"Joe…"

A strange sensation runs through Joe's mind as a large gust of wind violently blows through the area. The cat women huddle together and brace themselves against the sudden burst of air. Joe uses his arm as a shield from the wind and tries to find the source of the wind. A black hooded figure appears about ten feet from Joe with a long black robe covering his body. The wind settles down as Joe questions the black clothed figure.

"Who are you?"

The figure's covered head looks up at Joe and reveals two glowing yellow eyes. A hand encased in a black glove grabs the hood and reveals the identity of the figure. Joe is shocked to see a black haired, yellow-eyed version of himself standing right in front of him. The only similarity between them is the other figure has a strange scent that causes fear within the cat people. Joe notices that the others have become scared about the unknown visitor. He turns his attention back at the black haired version of himself. "I'm not going to ask again."

"My name is Dami and you have something I want."

"And that would be?

"Give me the "Chaos Stone" and I may let you and your friends continue to live."

As soon as Dami finishes his threat, the outline of a blue stone shaped object can be seen through Joe's shirt. _I don't know what the hell he is talking about. However, he's not getting something that is inside me._ Joe places a hand over his chest and can feel something warm course throughout his body. Before Joe can answer Dami's request to hand over the stone from his body, he closes his eyes and gives Dami a piece of his mind. "Sorry Dami, but I cannot give this stone to you." Joe reopens his eyes, which have now turned aqua while his hair extends to the center of his back and fades into a shining shade of sliver. After a quick burst of light, Joe stands before Dami clothed in the same unknown power that he used to battle Gallon with. "It has taken a liking to me."

Felicia and her friends look on with amazement as a white aura explodes and swirls around Joe's body. The cat group distance themselves from the two strange smelling humans and are frightened by their unknown scent. "Grace, I'm scared." Alto hides herself behind Grace's left leg and quivers.

"Don't be scared Alto. I won't let them hurt you."

Lucy runs over to the shocked Felicia and screams at her. "See? He's just as evil as the rest of the human race!" When Felicia refuses to answer Lucy she becomes even more angry. "Felicia!"

_No Lucy, Joe may be similar to Dami… but there is a difference._

The converted Joe looks behind him and finds the cat women afraid of him. His eyes meet Felicia's and he finds a shining ray of hope in her eyes. Joe faces his black haired opponent and readies himself for combat. Dami frowns as Joe's aura leaves his body and concentrates itself around his right hand.

"So, you have decided to oppose me? You do not have the knowledge to utilize the stone's full potential to defeat me."

"I may not know what this power is. However…" Joe shoves off the ground with his right foot and rockets directly for Dami. He draws his right hand back and prepares to attack Dami with everything he's got. Joe's long hair flows freely behind him as Joe closes the distance between him and the yellow eyed human. "I will not allow you to get it without a fight!"

Dami snickers as Joe throws the energized punch at him. "Let's see you handle my… **Chaos Breaker!**" The snickering Dami raises his left hand to defend himself from Joe's attack. Joe yells as the attack slams into Dami's hand and explodes into a pillar of intense light that engulfs both of them. The light prevents anyone from seeing the result of Joe's attack.

After a few tense moments the light dies down it allow the others to see the outcome of Joe's attack. Felicia is the first to see Joe's fist still glowing but is stopped cold by the palm of Dami's left hand. _No way! _Joe strains to complete his attack when suddenly a black aura completely surrounds Dami's body and begins to force Joe away from him. _My attack failed! _The black aura negates Joe's attack and he blocks the forceful aura with his forearms. When Joe finally stops sliding backwards he finds that Dami's aura has placed a 15-foot gap between them. He also spots the fact that all of the grass and plants within a 10 foot radius of Dami has died from an unseen force. Joe takes a single step forward and begins to gasp for air. The rotting plants produce an awful smell, which causes the cats to back away farther from the two fighters.

_What the hell?_ Joe wipes away some of the sweat from his forehead. However, sweat continues to pour down his face even through Joe backs away from the black aura Dami. _How am I so weak?_

"That's the power of my **"Poison Aura"** The black haired enemy drops his black aura before speaking with Joe. "Feeling weak are we?" Joe looks up and finds Dami smiling at him. "Oh, I'm sorry. Were you talking to yourself?"

"How did you read my mind?" Joe notices a black object glowing in the center of Dami's chest. "If I have the so called "Chaos Stone", what is inside you?"

Dami laughs and lowers his aura. "It's about time you asked about this." He points at the glowing black object and gives Joe the short explanation about his power. "If it wasn't for your arrival into this world, I wouldn't have been able to control everything using the "Shadow Stone" that is now embedded in my body."

_There's a Shadow AND a Chaos Stone? Just how much stuff don't I know? _"You can't exist… you're a fake!"

Dami breaks out in roaring laughter at Joe's statement. The laughing Dami leaves Joe buried under a load of confusion. "For someone who comes from outside this universe you don't know shit do you?"

Dami opens and aims his right hand at Joe, a large violet ball of energy appears and glows fiercely as Joe prepare to counter attack. **"Shadow Breaker."** Just as quickly as the ball appeared, it vanishes into thin air and out of the Joe's sight. Joe scans the area with his eyes in an attempt to find Dami's unseen attack. _Where is it? I can feel something, but I cannot lock on to it!_

Felicia gasps as something causes her ears to twitch around. She looks above Joe and finds a high-speed object heading directly for the unsuspecting human. "Joe look above you!"

"Huh?" Joe looks up and finds the object quickly closing in on his current location. He jumps to his right and rolls away seconds before the object crashes into the ground. A large explosion kicks up dirt and debris, which creates a large cloud and blankets the area. Joe covers his mouth with his arm and coughs loudly as the dust enters his lungs. "Felicia, are you guys ok?"

"I'm fine." The cloud prevents Joe from seeing where Felicia's voice came from. "Joe, where are you?"

"Stay still I'll find you." Before he can even take a single step to find Felicia another strange feeling races through his mind, which causes a silent alarm to go off in Joe's head. He looks around frantically and takes off into the cloud. Felicia stumbles out of the cloud and coughs as she tries to breathe some fresh air. As Felicia recovers, the black outline of someone walks out of the cloud and up to Felicia.

"Joe?" Felicia turns around and finds Dami looking down at her. "You're not Joe." She backs away from the black haired fighter and enters her fighting stance. Dami watches with great curiously and wonder. "You gonna stare at me for fight? You better not underestimate me, unless you want to get hurt." Felicia watches in horror as Dami instantly appears in front of her with an open hand only six inches from her face. "How the…?"

"Sorry, but I have no time to play with you kitty cat." Frozen by her own fear, Felicia is unable to move away or defend herself. Slowly, Dami's hand begins to glow a faint shade of violet and the target is Felicia. "Good bye… **D-Spike**."

Joe comes flying from Felicia's left side at full speed. "No!" He shoves Felicia away from Dami just as a black spike is fired from his hand and finds it's mark in Joe's left hip. The spike tears through skin and muscle as it cuts through the air. Fresh blood sprays across the ground from Joe's open wound. Fed up with Joe's constant interference, Dami kicks Joe with his right leg and drops the wounded warrior next to Felicia. She finds Joe lying on his chest with blood oozing from underneath his body.

"Joe are you ok?" Felicia nudges him lightly with her hands in an attempt to get an answer. She pulls her hands away and covers her mouth when Joe's hair returns to normal but his eyes have become a sickening pearl white. "Oh God! Wake up Joe!" After shoving the unresponsive body a few times, the grim reality begins to settle in the back of Felicia's mind. _Is he really gone?_

"Bah, it's about time he died." Felicia turns her head and finds Dami with his right hand on his hip standing a few feet from the fallen Joe. He looks at the bloody scene and laughs at the sight of Joe's blood. "Unless you want a double funeral, I suggest you hand over the stone from his body." The blue shaped stone glows near the open wound on Joe's body. "I tore a hole so that the stone can be removed from his body."

"Did you have to kill him?" Felicia stands up and separates Joe from Dami. Her eyes are on the edge of crying. "He didn't have to die, so why kill him?"

"Because the "Chaos Stone" cannot change possession while the previous user is still alive. That justifies my killing."

Felicia closes her hand into a fist and swings hard at Dami's face. "There is no justification in killing others!" Her punch connects with Dami's left cheekbone and has little effect on him. _Damn, if Joe couldn't hurt him what made me think I could?_ Felicia is blown away by Dami's "Poison Aura" and stumbles to the ground from the after effect of the attack. She looks up and finds the black haired fighter closing in on her.

"No more fooling around cat." Dami closes his left hand into a fist and draws it behind his back. A black aura surrounds the fist as he prepares to end Felicia's life. "Go join your friend in hell!" **"Shadow Crusher"**

Dami throws the energized punch with authority at the stunned Felicia with the intention of killing her. Felicia cringes and shuts her eyes tightly as the attack closes in. _Someone help…_ A single tear falls from Felicia's right eye and splashes to the ground just as a thunderous blow causes a gust of wind to blow her hair back.

"What the hell are you doing?" The frightened Felicia opens her eyes and finds the wounded Joe holding back Dami's last attack with his left hand. His right hand covers the open wound that is now coated with dried blood. He groans and strains to prevent Dami from hurting Felicia. "Why are you still alive? What reason could he have to continue living? Could it be?"

Dami's self doubt gives Joe the opening he needed to force Dami's fist back, which then causes him to break the attack and regroup before attacking once more. Joe's eyes return to their natural brown color and he doubles over in pain from having his side torn open. "I have decided to protect the ones you decide to hurt Dami!" Through the pain Joe stands straight up and faces the extremely dangerous enemy with renewed courage in his heart.

"How much longer you can keep going with that injury on your body."

_He's right, unless something happens in the next few moments… everyone is going to die. Me, Felicia, her friends, and everyone else. Please give me the power to protect everyone!_

As Dami charges the two courageous warriors a beam of light descends from the sky and absorbs the two of them. The light fades away just before Dami passes by their last location. He looks around his location and finds no one around him. "Get back here and face me. I need that stone!"

Somewhere…

_Ugh, where the hell am I now?_

(End Episode 5)

* * *

_Trailer for the next episode…_

Joe: I'm home? Was everything I experienced a dream?

Felicia: What are you talking about Joe?

Joe: Felicia!

Felicia: That's my name, you don't look so good Joe.

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 6: Homecoming**

Jeff: Uh Joe? You care to explain why is there a girl dressed like a cat woman in bed with you?

Joe: I can explain everything… _I hope_.

* * *

**Author Note:** Damn this was a long Episode for me to type. Thank God for the weekend. Keep R&R people! 


	6. Homecoming

**Author Note: **The last Episode just goes to show you that an OC doesn't have to be overpowered or invincible to keep people entertained. Even the hero deserves to get his ass kicked once in a while in my story. But that doesn't mean he's a wimp!

Before we start, I blame Chobits for Felicia's actions towards Joe. Read on to find out!

* * *

_**Episode 6: Homecoming**_

_Where am I?_

Joe slowly opens his eyes and finds himself in his room lying on the top of his bed in his black jeans and white V-neck tee shirt. He swings his legs off the edge of the left side of his bed and walks into the bathroom. Next to his bed the red numbers of his clock dimly glow the time of two in the morning as the darkness of night fills the house. The first thing he does is turn on the cold water and fills the sink halfway with the chilly water. Then he dunks his head under the water and keeps it there for a few seconds. Afterwards Joe pulls the plug to drain out of the bottom of the sink and drains out the water. He reaches over to the towel rack and wipes his face down with the cotton cloth that is hanging from the metal bar.

_I'm home… was everything just a dream? But, it felt so real._

Joe sighs and looks up at the mirror that is mounted on the cabinet above the sink. Instead of seeing his own reflection, Joe is shocked to see his silver haired counterpart looking back at him. He shakes his head in disbelief and looks again at the mirror only to find himself looking back at him. Confused, Joe places the cloth on his shoulders and heads back into his room. He shuts the door behind him and drops himself down on the bed. Several conflicting thoughts race through Joe's mind as he stares at his ceiling.

_What the hell just happened? I must be really tired._

He rolls to his right and bumps into something buried underneath his blankets. The object moves slightly from his touch and groans slightly. Joe grabs the top of the covers and rips them away to reveal his hidden visitor. A large amount of blue hair flows out from under the blanket to reveal Felicia who is sleeping peacefully on his bed. Her tail comes up and smacks Joe in the face knocking him off of the bed. The sound of Joe's body hitting the floor wakes Felicia from her peaceful sleep. She crawls over to the other side and finds Joe grabbing the back of his head on the floor. Joe looks up and finds the curious cat woman looking at him.

"Huh?"

"Joe? Where are we?"

Before Joe can answer her question the door to his room swings open and Joe's younger brother Jeff walks into the room. Jeff sees the half-naked Felicia and gives Joe a displeasing look.

"Joe, why is there a girl dressed like a cat girl in bed with you?"

"I can explain."

Joe sits down on the bed while Jeff pulls up a chair and readies himself for a long wait. A half hour goes by as Joe gives Jeff one hell of an explanation to why someone like Felicia is in his room. Jeff looks at Felicia who is sitting on the floor with her legs folded under her body who is busy with looking around at the unfamiliar room. She swings her tail around in her hand out of boredom as Jeff leans over to Joe and whispers something to him.

"So, how much did you drug this girl?" Joe falls to the ground and lands on his back and twitches after hearing Jeff's question. "You know, it's illegal to hold someone against their will Joe."

Joe stands up and argues with his suspicious brother. "I'm not doing anything illegal!"

The arguing brothers draws Felicia's attention. Jeff turns his attention towards the alleged cat woman and asks an important question. "I just got one question for you, is that fur on your body or what?" Felicia's face turns bright red as Joe punches Jeff in the back of the head with his fist and drops him to the floor. Jeff is pissed off from his brother's unwanted attack to the back of his head.

"The hell is you're problem?"

"Just drop it. It's too late to do anything now anyways. Let's just get some sleep and figure this out in the morning ok?"

"But it's not too late for you to have some late night "fun" eh?"

Jeff bolts out the door and slams it shut behind him just as Joe hurls a sneaker at his demented brother. The sneaker ricochets off of the door as Joe's face turns a light shade of red. He mumbles about his perverted brother when Felicia stands up and wanders over to the angered Joe.

"Uh, what did he mean by "late night fun" Joe?"

"Don't worry about it. We'll work out everything later ok?"

Joe climbs into bed and is ready to fall asleep when Felicia enters his bed and lies down next to him. She moves closer to him and rests her head down on his right shoulder.

"Uh, Felicia?"

"What is it Joe?"

"It's uh…" He looks away and tries to think of something. "do you have to…?"

He looks back and finds Felicia sound asleep on his shoulder. Her breathing slows down as she enters a comatose state of sleep. Joe places his head down on a pillow and drifts off to sleep himself.

The next morning Joe wakes up and finds Felicia missing from the bed. He is nearly knocked out of bed by the loud continuous beeping sound of several smoke detectors going off at once. Joe jumps out of bed and dashes for the stairs. He launches himself down the stairs and finds smoke coming from the kitchen. As Joe enters the smoke filled kitchen, he finds a panic stricken Felicia scrambling to salvage something from the stove. After turning off the burners and opening a window to vent the smoke out of the room, Joe turns his attention to Felicia.

"Are you okay Felicia? You're not hurt are you?"

"No…" She looks down at the ground and removes the dirty apron from her waist. "I was trying to cook some breakfast and then well…"

Joe tries to cheer up the dishearten Felicia. "The next time you're hungry ask for help alright Felicia?" Out of gratitude, Felicia playfully tackles Joe to the floor, which draws a laugh from him. Her tail waves around happily as Joe puts his hands on Felicia shoulders and pulls the happy cat woman off of him. "Ok, let's get this place cleaned up before…"

A loud cough interrupts Joe and draws both of their attention. "How much longer are you two gonna sit there?" Jeff is standing at the doorway to the kitchen tapping his foot on the floor with his arms crossed and a pissed look on his face. A sweat drop rolls down the back of Joe's head after seeing his brother take note of the wrecked condition of the kitchen. Before Joe can answer, Jeff barks out his orders. "Just get this place cleaned up, understand?

"Yes Jeff." _Slave driver… _

It takes a few hours and a lot of elbow grease, but the kitchen is now clean from Felicia's cooking. Joe grabs a chair and sits down to rest while Felicia sits herself on the floor. Someone's stomach growls loud enough for Joe to easily hear in the kitchen. Felicia grabs her stomach from embarrassment and blushes slightly. A small smirk comes across Joe's face as he stands up and pushes his chair in.

"Let's get going Felicia." Joe's statement leaves Felicia in the dark. He holds out a hand to the sitting Felicia who looks up at him with a confused look on her face. "I'll take us out to eat, but first we have to get you some clothes."

Felicia huffs and looks away from Joe. "What's wrong with the way I look?"

Another sweat drop runs down Joe's head before he tries to defend himself. "It's not that Felicia, its just people in my world aren't used to seeing cat people walk down the street in broad daylight." Felicia takes Joe's hand and stands up. She heads towards the stairs and happily bounds up the wooden steps to Joe's room in search for something to wear.

_I wonder how we got back…_ Joe looks out a nearby window and watches some cars drive by. Several people also walk by the house unknowing that a dangerous force now resides in the small white, two-story house. _Did Dami do this or is there something else out there?_

As Joe contemplates his current situation, the sound of someone falling down the stairs catches Joe's attention. He rushes to the bottom of the stairwell only to be crushed under someone's body. Felicia with a dark blue sweatshirt stuck on her head sits up on top of Joe. She pulls the shirt off her head and hisses at it. "Nyan… this shirt is too small." A low groan comes from underneath Felicia; she looks down and finds herself crushing Joe's lower back. "I'm so sorry Joe." She climbs off of him and watches Joe stand up and brush himself off.

"Hey don't worry about it." He fixes his hair by running a hand through it. "I'm fine. Besides, if I wasn't there to break your fall, you could have been hurt." Felicia smiles and nods in agreement. Joe looks at the sweatshirt and sighs. "Let's get something for you to wear now okay?"

As the two of them head upstairs, they are unaware that they are being watched from the sky. A silver colored Huitzil is using a powerful X-ray beam to scan the house for potential threat to the earth as it hovers above the house. It captures a picture of Joe and Felicia and rockets for the horizon at break neck speeds. The scouting robot sends a message to several other Huitzils for assistance in handling the powerful unknown target.

**Powerful target located… requesting reinforcement units. Repeat. A powerful target has been located… reinforcement units needed immediately to deal with this threat to the earth.**

The robot disappears into the atmosphere heading back to base.

(End Episode 6)

* * *

_Trailer for the next episode…_

Joe: Give me a break. I'm home less than 24 hours and the Huitzil army decides to attack me?

Felicia: They see you as the greatest threat to the earth. Now they won't attack Darkstalkers anymore!

Joe: Uh, thanks?

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 7: Metal Assault **

Joe: You damn machines ruined my breakfast!

Jeff: He gets pissed when you mess with his food…

Joe: Jeff, remind me to kill you if we survive this.

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**Author Note:** Ok, now we're back in the "real world" and it's time to blow some stuff up! Starting with those damn Huitzil and maybe some random buildings and cars. And remember, reviews make me write faster. No really, they do. 


	7. Metal Assault

**Author Note:** I'm back with a new Episode for ya people! It's time to bring in those psycho killer robots every Darkstalker loves to hate, the Huitzil!

(This episode has been rated FMD & PHL for Flaming Metal Debris and possible harsh language. Besides, the Huitzil don't care what you say as long as you kill them before they kill you.)

* * *

_**Episode 7: Metal Assault**_

Joe and Jeff were walking down the street to their favorite restaurant with a badly disguised Felicia following close behind. They had torn several pairs of sweatpants and sown them together to create a makeshift dress that is long enough to cover her feet. A light jacket covers Felicia's upper body and a baseball cap hides Felicia's ears from the public. Her hands and tail is tucked securely underneath all of her clothing. Joe is wearing a pair of sunglasses to shield his eyes from the bight daylight. Most of the random people on the street ignore the three of them, while others look at them out of curiosity. Jeff notices the unwanted attention and brings it up with his brother.

"Hey, we better get there soon unless you want to explain to other people why there is a badly dressed girl following us."

"Listen, once I get some extra spending money next week, I'll take Felicia to get some normal clothes ok?" Joe looks at an upcoming sign and turns to the others. "Well, we're here."

The three walkers enter the restaurant and sit themselves down in a corner booth at the back to the building. A waiter walks out from behind the counter with a note pad in hand and asks for their order. Joe looks at the menu and orders a large ham and cheese omelet with a large glass of orange juice, while Jeff orders some coffee and a bagel with plain cream cheese. Felicia looks at the menu and is unable to decide on what to order.

"Uh, just bring me some milk please."

The waiter writes down their order and walks into the kitchen to give the chef the order. Joe leans against the back of the chair and speaks to Felicia. "Hey, what's wrong Felicia? You have been acting strange since we left."

"I'm fine." Felicia smiles to try and alee some of Joe's concern. Joe shakes his head in disagreement and causes Felicia to react negatively. "No, really I'm ok Joe."

Before Joe can counter Felicia's statement, he senses something that is coming straight for them. Felicia's ears begin to react from the same unknown source and nearly knock her hat off. Several loud sources of noise pass over the building and shake the place to its foundations. Joe knocks his chair over as he runs to the closest window and tries to find who or what caused the noise. He is at the window for a few seconds before the entire building is riddled with machine gun fire from the sky. The roof of the building collapses and causes the entire structure to come crashing down on the unsuspecting victims.

Several silver colored Huitzil robots surround the area and focus their attention on the freshly demolished building with machine guns replacing their arms. Other humans run screaming from the area in an attempt to escape the destructive grasp of the "invaders". One of the Huitzil approaches the massive pile of broken glass, stone, and smoldering wood and begins to scan it for any signs of life underneath the tomb of assorted building materials.

"**Extermination of threat… unconfirmed. Continuing search for target."**

"Now you damn machines have really **PISSED ME OFF!**"

A small beam of energy exits the pile and pierces through the chest plate of the single robot causing its premature shutdown. The other Huitzil remove the safeties from their weapons and open fire onto the pile of debris. They pump out several hundred rounds of ammunition and reduces the debris to a much smaller pile of assorted crap. The machines return their arms to normal and await further orders. Somewhere from the bottom of the pile of reduced rubble, an unscathed transformed Joe explodes out from underneath and confidently stands in front of the killer robots. Joe's long silver hair flows behind him as the machines circle the strange human. Numerous bystanders come to watch the show as the silver haired Joe charges energy for an attack. He notices that the area is now teeming with civilians whom are now in grave danger.

_I can't fight here… there's too many innocent people in the way._ Two of the Huitzil rocket at him and throw punches at him using spiked fists. Joe ducks under their punches and uppercuts both of the robots in the head sending the decapitated machines to the ground. Sparks begins to spit out from the headless robots which causes Joe to worry.

_Crap, I forgot about the explosions!_ Joe tries to get some distance from the imminent explosion, but is caught in the ball of flames and is sent crashing into the windshield of a parked car on the other side of the street. Just as Joe removes himself from the shattered window, the owner of the wrecked car comes out of the next-door apartment building and swears at Joe.

"What the &#$& did you do to my car!"

"Sorry." A loud buzzing sound catches Joe's attention. "Get back inside!"

Joe shoves the upset owner back into the building a few seconds before a large circle-shaped buzz saw divides the poor car in half. The owner passes out as he watches his vehicle as it is turned into two piles of scrap metal. While Joe leads the group of Huitzil away from the populated area of the city, Jeff helps the waiter and chef escape from the pile of debris. As the building was collapsing, a large metal beam came down on the chef's head and split his head open. Jeff is able to get both of them a safe distance from the battle zone when the still disguised Felicia arrives with some clean towels to assist the injured chef. The waiter tends to the chef's head wound while Jeff heads over to Felicia.

"You should go and help Joe handle those machines."

"Alright." Felicia walks past the growing crowd of humans and enters an empty alley. She removes her clothing and places it in a nearby garbage can. A loud explosion causes Felicia's ears to pop out from underneath her hat. The hat is caught by a gust of wind and carried into the back of the alley. Her ears bend to her left and she locks onto Joe's scent with her nose. _How did Joe get so far away just a few minutes? I better see if he needs help._ Running on all four of her cat-claws, Felicia travels towards Joe's current location.

Meanwhile, Joe has lured the group of Huitzils out of the city limits and into the lightly wooded fields where he doesn't have to worry about anyone getting hurt. The Huitzil surround Joe and charge their head cannons to strike him down. All ten of the robots emits a single thin blue beam, which then collides at Joe's last location and turns the area into a smoldering crater. Not taking any chances the Huitzil quickly scan the surrounding area for their target and find nothing. "For Huitzil, you guys are pretty dumb." The robots look up and finds the silver haired human coming straight down for the ground with his right arm fully extended charged with his favorite attack. "Time to end this… **Chaos Breaker!**"

Joe comes down and slams his fist into the earth with authority. After a few moments of silence, the ground begins to shake violently and several large pillars of dense stone extend up from the ground and crash down on top of each robot. The explosions are stifled underneath the dense stone pillars and set the nearby grass on fire. Felicia arrives only a few moments after the final explosion and finds Joe standing in the middle of the devastated area looking down at the ground. _How did the Huitzil find their way to my world?_ Joe sighs and finds Felicia slowly walking towards him. _Dami must have sent them to finish the job._

Felicia is only a few yards away from the victorious Joe when the ground begins to shake violently. They are surprised to see eight black colored Huitzil burst out of the ground and separate them. _What the? I don't remember any Huitzil having a black color._ As Joe and Felicia charge at the alternate colored robots, they are both trapped within four green shields that fuse into two electrified domes. A large amount of electricity continuously flows through their bodies as they struggle to remain on their feet inside the domes. "Felicia… are you ok?"

She extends her nails and raises a claw over her head. "I'm okay. But they won't be!" Felicia growls as she swipes at the dome and is met with an extremely powerful secondary electric shock. Felicia's hair and tail stands on end as the extra shock courses through her half-naked body. "Nyan!" Her attack shatters the dome but sends the stunned cat woman flying through the air. She crashes her right hip into one of the stone pillars and flinches in pain.

"Felicia! You have to get out of here." Felicia is picked up off of the ground by one of the black Huitzil and is held securely in its right hand. The captured cat woman struggles to escape and is met with yet another electric shock. She screams out in pain as the robot continues the relentless attack on the defenseless Felicia. Exhausted from the numerous electric attacks, Felicia finally loses consciousness and falls limp in the Huitzil's grip. Her arms and legs dangle motionless as Joe is forced to watch Felicia's inhumane treatment. Horrified, Joe stands up in his dome and screams loudly out of frustration at the sight of the motionless Felicia. Suddenly, Joe stands eerily quiet as the Huitzil turn towards him with his head hung over his chest. One of the robots begins to scan the silent Joe as his hair begins to rise above him.

"**Analyzing target's energy level. Energy level is... limitless? Error! Error!"**

The silent Joe emits a wave of red energy without moving an inch and slices the four black Huitzil nearest to him in half at their waists. Joe's body is engulfed by all four explosions and vanishes deep within the combined blasts. Smoke and cinders rise into the air and blanket the area where Joe was standing. Two of the remaining Huitzil decides to take a closer look at the cloud and enters the smoky abyss with machine guns on standby. Several rounds of gunfire and loud crashes follow soon after they enter and then there is nothing. Something starts to make its way out of the cloud and exits the cloud in a timely matter. The figure reveals itself to be Joe, who has both of the scouting robot's heads in his hands. He crushes both of the heads with his bare hands and litters the ground with small pieces of circuitry and metal. His actions force the second to last Huitzil to avenge its fallen machines by jumping at Joe with a spiked punch. Joe calmly raises his left hand and catches the punch between the gap of two spikes.

"Is that the best you got?" Joe picks up his head and opens his eyelids; the aqua color eyes have been replaced with two blood red eyes that would cause the toughest of humans to crap their pants. The captured Huitzil tries to free its hand and fails. "You want me to let you go?" He picks up the thousand pound robot with one hand and holds it over his head. "Enjoy the ride!" Joe's eyes flicker and the Huitzil is surrounded by a red ball and lifted high into the sky. He snaps his fingers and the ball glows extremely bright for a few seconds and explodes turning the doomed robot into mere dust.

The final Huitzil watches as Joe begins to close in and makes one final attempt to scan his body. **"Target has grown too powerful. It's energy and abilities cannot be safely measured without extreme measures."** Joe stops a few feet from the robot and crosses his arms in front of his chest.

"Now, I'm feeling forgiving today. You can give me the girl and leave this place or…" Joe bends his neck to his right and left to stretch out the muscles on both sides of his neck. Then, he places his body in an offensive stance similar to a powerful boxer in the ring. "...you can be the final victim for the day."

Not taking any chances against the dangerous human, the black Huitzil transforms it's legs into two rockets and blasts off away from Joe. The robot is able to get a five hundred yard head start before Joe can react. A sly smile comes across his face as he watches the black machine leave his sight. "I love it when they try to run." The rocketing Huitzil continues on a path away from Joe and focuses on getting away from him. Without warning, Joe appears in front of the robot and stands in mid-air with his arms folded across his chest for the second time. His silver hair flows freely behind him as the high altitude crosswinds whip the floating human's hair around. "I warned you. Now prepare to see your fallen partners in hell!"

Joe unfolds his arms and raises a red aura around his body. Then, he launches himself headfirst at the cowardly machine to rescue Felicia. The Huitzil fires a rocket punch with its free hand, attached to a long metal cord at Joe who lands on top of the cord and runs directly at the machine. Once he reaches the base of the cord, Joe cuts Felicia free with a single well-placed chop in the middle of the black Huitzil's right arm and slices the arm in half. The hand keeps a tight hold on Felicia as it free-falls towards the ground with Joe following close behind. The robot's right arm returns to its socket and converts into a beam cannon.

"**New orders received… terminating target."**

A large blast of energy exits the arm cannon and travels towards Joe. Joe has just caught the falling arm and released the unconscious Felicia by tearing the hand off of her body when he notices the energy attack heading for him. He places the cat woman down on the ground laying her face up and prepares to intercept the attack. After walking a few steps from Felicia, Joe raises his left arm at the energy blast and holds it still with his right hand at the elbow. The red aura begins to swirl around his arm until the tip of an "energy arrow" appears on his wrist. "Game over… **Chaos Shot**, charged and FIRE!"

The arrow launches out from Joe's arm and sends a large back draft of energy through the air. As the high-speed arrow pierces through the cannon blast, it cuts a small hole through the attack and explodes the energy blast away from the two-grounded warriors. It continues towards the black Huitzil and burns a small hole though the center of its chest plate before diffusing into thin air. The machine floats in mid-air not knowing that its lease on life has just run out, thanks to Joe's attack. As the mortally wounded robot showered sparks and began to shut down, it sent one final message to an unknown receiver.

"**Target has been classified as a possible high level Darkstalker. Additional data is needed to complete a full analysis of the target's abilities."**

Joe watches as the damaged robot flashes several times and explodes into a ball of fire. Flaming metal debris rains down from the sky as Joe walks over to Felicia's side and picks up the still unresponsive Felicia in his arms. "Such raw, untainted beauty… yet, she continues to wait for that "special someone" to make her feel complete." The red eyed Joe now entranced by Felicia, moves in for a kiss. _No! This isn't right._

Suddenly, Joe's head snaps back and his hair retracts into his scalp and converts into its common brown color. A few moments later Joe opens his brown eyes and finds himself holding the unconscious Felicia in his arms. "Uh, wasn't I fighting Huitzil some time ago?" He looks around his position and finds several craters from explosions and piles of shattered circuitry all over the area. "I guess, we got them all." Just then, a cell phone goes off breaking Joe's train of thought. He places Felicia in his right arm and pulls out a small flip-top cell phone and answers the call. "Hello?"

"Joe? Where the hell are you? I saw the explosions and ran home to get the car."

"We're at the edge of the woods…" A sweat drop runs down Joe's face as he looks around and realizes that the "forest" is no more. The area is littered with machinery and burnt tree stumps. "Uh, just get to the old saw mill." He closes the phone and places it in his pocket. _There is nothing I can do until I find where Dami is hiding._

Meanwhile, Dami is watching all of the recent events from the "Darkstalker's World" in Demitri's castle when a black Huitzil stumbles into the room. The machine gives Dami the final message from the destroyed robot and draws a laugh from Dami. "So, the pathetic human is getting stronger eh?" Dami stands up and blows the messenger robot into oblivion with a single hand. "I already knew that you worthless machine. These "Shadow Huitzil" are only regular Huitzil that I have infused with a small sample of my power and they still fail me even when I found the secret to the legendary gate to send them to his world." Dami walks over to a window of the castle and looks at the black sky. "I don't know how he opened the "Chaos Gate" with little knowledge of his power, but once I find a way to allow myself to enterhis world… I'll tear the Chaos Stone from his beating heart personally!"

(End Episode 7)

* * *

_Trailer for the next episode…_

Joe: I feel like crap.

Jeff: Well, next time think before you blow stuff up.

Felicia: I wonder if anyone else got pulled into this world as well.

Morrigan: How many would you like?

Joe: Speak of the devil.

Jeff/Felicia/Morrigan: Succubus…

Joe: …whatever.

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 8: Darkness Rising**

Felicia: I had a strange dream that you kissed me. Did something happen while I was knocked out?

Joe: Uh, not really... let's go see what Morrigan wants ok?

Felicia: Hey, why are you dodging my question? Joe get back here!

* * *

**Author Note:** (Only birthday wish is a girl like Felicia to appear)… damn. Well, there's always next year. Review, because it makes me write faster. 


	8. Darkness Rising

**Author Note:** This is the third edition of Episode 8; my damn computer decided to corrupt the file containing the next episode, twice! So it as taken me a whole month to get thisinstallment done between school, work, and playing Darkstalkers on my PSP… well, here's the next episode.

(**Caution: **This episode may contain random acts of violence, half naked cat women, and language your momma wouldn't like. Enjoy!)

* * *

_**Episode 8: Darkness Rising**_

Three weeks have passed since the Huitzil attack and Felicia's arrival into Joe and Jeff's home. It was just a normal day at the house, well as normal as having a cat woman from the world of the Darkstalkers living with you. Joe was sitting on the couch in the living room watching the morning news on TV, while the footage of the Huitzil attack is played on CNN for the tenth time in the past three weeks. Some how a bystander was able to record his battle against the black machines with a video camera but was unable to get a clear shot of the sliver haired human's face whom was given the title of the "Silver Savior" by one of the reporters. When the network tried to enhance the film, the area around Joe's face remained surrounded by his silver aura. The camera was able to get a clear picture of Felicia from behind, but the network censored her body out since the idea of showing a nude woman dressed like a cat on cable television is exactly what the soccer mom's of the world needs to declare war against the network.

_Well, that's one way to keep the press off of Felicia._

Sick of hearing random people talking nonsense and saying that this is someone's idea of a bad joke; Joe reaches for the remote to turn the channel but is interrupted by Felicia playfully tackling him from behind. "Good morning Felicia." The smiling cat woman climbs off of Joe's back and sits down on the floor next to him. Joe gets back up on the couch and checks her left arm. Her left side has been wrapped with bandages ever since the two brothers got her back home from the site of the Huitzil attack. "Feeling better Felicia?" She gives him a quick nod as Joe releases her furry arm after checking for any missed injuries and leans over the edge of the couch. "That's good, after the beating those damn machines gave you I was hoping you would fully recover."

Felicia scratches the back of her head in embarrassment to Joe's comment. "I am a quick healer after all Joe." The smile quickly turns to a frown as Felicia doubles over in pain. Joe gives Felicia a displeasing look as her bandages start to turn a light shade of red. "Guess not."

The concerned human assists Felicia to lie down on the couch and grabs the first-aid kit from the bathroom to change her bandages. Joe removes the old bandages and places a gauze pad over the wound to prevent blood from spilling onto the floor or the couch. _This doesn't make sense… why hasn't Felicia's wound healed yet? It's been three whole weeks and she is still hurt. I wonder if this has something to do with those black Huitzil._ As he continues to work on Felicia, his right hand begins to turn blue and encases itself in a calming aura. _Why is my Chaos stone reacting now? Hmm, I wonder…_ Joe places his hand directly over Felicia's open wound and emits the gathered energy into the gash. The torn flesh heals almost instantly as the energy diffuses into Felicia's injury. _Is this another ability of the Chaos Stone? _Joe looks at his non-glowing hand and tries to draw a conclusion. _Just how much power lies inside me?_

Felicia sits up and moves her hand over the healed area and looks at Joe. "What did you do? The pain is completely gone and there is no sign of any scars." Joe stands up and moves away from Felicia. "Joe, is something wrong?" Joe turns around and faces the worried cat woman, he sighs, looks into her shining green eyes, and…"Felicia, I…" He is interrupted by the sound of the doorbell from the front of the house. _Now who the hell would come here at ten in the morning?_ "Felicia you should go upstairs until I say it's ok to come back down." Felicia walks to the base of the stairwell and stops. _I smell several cat people…but it can't be them._ Joe walks over to the front door as the bell rings several more times before he finally opens the locked door for the unannounced visitor. "Ok, I'm here already." He cracks open the door and is struck in the face by a hard object. The sound of Joe's body with the added bonus of the door slamming shut catches Felicia's attention whom runs down the stairs to check on him. "What happened!" Felicia reaches the bottom of the steps and freezes in place when she catches sight of the visitors. "It can't be…"

"Felicia!" Pico and Nana launch themselves at Felicia and hug her tightly around her waist. "We thought we would never see you again!"

The bewildered Felicia is stunned as Lucy and Grace are seen standing at the entrance to the house in full human form. Both of the converted cat women are wearing lightweight jackets and blue jeans while Alto pops her head out of Grace's jacket. She jumps out of the coat and transforms out of her cat form and joins the other two young girls in hugging Felicia at her waist. Lucy and Grace joins the others by converting back to their cat woman state. They remove their light clothing and drop it to the floor as Felicia returns to reality. "Is this a dream or are all of you really here?"

The eldest of the cat woman assures Felicia that she is not dreaming by speaking to her. "We are finally together again Felicia." Felicia is ready to break into tears when a low groan comes out from underneath the pile of clothing. Lucy kicks a jacket away to reveal the semi-unconscious Joe lying face down on the floor of the house with a large bump on his head. "Well, I guess "he" is here as well."

Ten minutes later… Joe and Jeff are sitting in the living room as Felicia explains the recent events that have happened to Lucy and Grace. The other cat girls are running around playing tag as the adults discuss important information about their situation. Joe is holding an ice pack to his forehead to try and cut the size of the bruise from when one of the young cat girls kicked him in the face as he opened the door. "And that is everything that has happened in the past three weeks up to your arrival." The two older car women are left speechless as they absorb Felicia's extremely elaborate story. Lucy is the first to comment.

"So, you're telling me that this human is supposed to be some sort of "chosen one" huh?"

"Basically, yes. He seems to possess a power that rivals high leveled Darkstalkers."

"I don't believe you." Joe nearly falls out of his seat when he hears Lucy's comment about him. "How can a human rival a Darkstalker like Gallon?"

"I don't know."

Before Joe can say anything in his defense, Jeff speaks up loudly as the three young cat girls come into the room with a strange cylinder shaped, red colored object. "Don't touch that!" The girls drop the object to the floor which bounces up and fires off a short beam of energy through the ceiling. Everyone hits the floor as several other beams of energy are fired off from the strange device, Jeff gets up from his chair and swipes the object from the floor and turns it off. "Don't touch anything in here, understand me!" Jeff's raised voice frightens the girls and causes them to hide behind Felicia.

"Jeff, where did you get something like that?" Joe points a finger at the energy firing cylinder in Jeff's left hand. "This? I made this device along with several other ones from the parts I… uh, "borrowed" from those destroyed robots. I call it the "Buster Cylinder", cool name huh?" A sweat drop runs down the back of Joe's head when he thinks about Jeff's other ideas with the salvaged Huitzil technology. _I don't know what's more dangerous… those black Huitzil or Jeff's ability to create Huitzil based weaponry._

Now that the threat of being blasted by Jeff's device has subsided, Felicia questions her friends on how they found out where she was staying. "When you draw the attention of several television stations, it's not hard to miss you Felicia." States the head banded Lucy. "It's our turn to ask you some questions…" Lucy stops when she realizes that the two humans are still in the room with them. "Uh, can the two of you leave for a few minutes?" Feeling insulted by Lucy, Jeff harshly snaps back at her. "Why should we? We have every right to be in this room as you do." Jeff's statement has now pissed off Lucy. "Listen human, I asked for a couple of minutes to be alone with my friends, is that too hard to ask?"

The only thing separating Lucy from Jeff is Felicia who has stepped between them to prevent any form of violence in front of the kits. She tries to reason with the both of them. "Come on you two, is this really necessary?" Joe stands up and heads for the door to the kitchen, his brother turns his frustration out on him. "Where the hell are you going?" Joe stops and faces his brother. "I'm giving them the space they requested. If I were you, I wouldn't piss them off…" A smirk comes across Joe's face as he finishes his statement. "…cause their claws would tear you apart."

Joe walks into the kitchen through the swinging door and is followed by Jeff. Lucy looks at Felicia with a confused look on her face. ""What's the deal with you and those humans? Are you…?" Felicia's face turns bright red in embarrassment as the younger cat girls look at the blushing Felicia with clueless looks on their faces. "Well Felicia?" Grace chimes into Lucy's question. "Are you their "pet"?" Startled by her friends' questions about her relationship with her new human friends, Felicia quickly denies having any special connection to them. However, her friends don't believe a single word that she says. "No really guys, there's nothing special going on. We're just good friends and that's all."

Before anyone could continue playing twenty questions with Felicia, the two brothers rush into the room and immediately turns the TV on to CNN. This pisses Lucy off since she asked to be left alone with her kind. "Get out of here! We're not done yet." Jeff turns the volume up and speaks to Lucy without facing her. "Just shut up and pay attention." Joe turns to Grace and speaks with her. "Grace, please take the girls into the next room." The eldest cat woman nods and gathers up the three young kits and leaves the others alone. Felicia stands up and walks over to Joe. "Is something wrong?"

Felicia's answer comes in the form of a devastated city located on the southern part of the east coast. Several large craters have turned what used to be prosperous and thriving city into a wasteland of destruction and despair. Felicia covers her mouth in shock at the sight of the horrible scene and turns to Joe for some sort of a positive answer. "Please tell me this isn't real Joe." He shakes his head in disagreement and gives Felicia the answer she did not want to hear. "Felicia, this is real. There are reports of those black Huitzil have attacking numerous cities around the world and have devastated the area. All of the people from those cities have said the same thing, a large black shadow appearing in the sky and the next thing they knew everything being destroyed by the black attackers." Joe's right hand begins to shake from built up anger. _All those lives have been devastated…_ _damn you to hell Dami._

"It's about time you realized who is responsible for this." The room goes silent as they try to find the source of the nameless voice. Felicia sighs as she realizes who the owner of the voice is. "You can come out now Morrigan." The aqua haired succubus teleports into the room and sits herself on a cloud of bats above the stunned group. She looks around the room and locks onto Joe's unique energy signature. When Morrigan finally gets a look and Joe's appearance she is disappointed with her findings. _So, this is the human I have been sensing the whole time? He's pathetic…_ Felicia is the first to question Morrigan's arrival into Joe's home. "What is it you are here for Morrigan?" The deadly vixen points a demanding finger at a surprised Joe. "I want to fight him."

Without warning Morrigan dispatches her batty cloud and charges her Soul Fist. Joe dives for the open window only to be blown through it by Morrigan's preemptive attack and sent flying into a tree in the back of his house. As Joe's body comes to a halt at the base of the tree, Morrigan appears in front of him and swings a scythe attached to a chain for his neck. He ducks under the scythe and watches as the tree falls over and just misses the neighbor's garage. _That's from all of those hours playing Darkstalkers on my PSP._ The others rush out of the house and are not surprised to find Morrigan picking a fight with Joe. Felicia tries to reason with Morrigan to stop the fight. "Is this really necessary Morrigan?"

Morrigan doesn't answer her, but continues her assault by sending several black whips from her back and strikes a defending Joe numerous times until he falls down on a knee. Large chunks of Joe's jeans and his white shirt have been removed from his body by Morrigan's relentless attacks. A frown comes across her face as she recalls her whips to reform her wings. "Is this the best you can do human? Are you going sit there and let me kill you?" The beaten Joe wipes a small trickle of blood from his mouth with his hand and slowly rises to his feet. Not impressed with Joe's performance, Morrigan decides to end the fight with help in the form of Lilith.

The second succubus appears in a flash of light and stands on Morrigan's left side. "What's up sis? You need help in dealing with this human?" Morrigan takes a hold of Lilith's right hand and nods in agreement. "Yes. Let us combine our power and hit him with our united attack." Joe senses large amounts of energy being gathered around the two sisters as they fuse into each other. After a quick flash of light, Morrigan is now equipped with a large beam cannon made out of several bats while two other smaller versions of the main weapon hover at her side. _Damn, this is their **"Darkness Cannon"**…_ For some unknown reason Joe looks behind him before he prepares to dodge the impending attack. Only a few feet behind him lays the others who have decided to watch the fight from the back door of the house. An image of Morrigan's attack blowing up the house and killing everyone inside races through Joe's already panicked mind. "Morrigan wait!"

"Too late human." Morrigan launches all of the charged energy directly at Joe who now has to make a decision, dodge and watch everyone die or finally counter-attack. Joe closes his eyes and hopes for some sort of divine intervention to stop the attack. Morrigan mocks the unresponsive Joe as the beam closes in on him. "Show me your ability to rival the Dark!" Joe opens his aqua colored eyes just as the beam is only a couple of feet from his location. _It must be done._ The beam collides with Joe and sets off an extra large flash of light which blinds everyone except Morrigan. "I knew he was weak." Morrigan turns away from the light and freezes in place. Lilith jumps out of Morrigan and tries to get an answer from her fusion partner. "Morrigan?"

Suddenly, the beam attack reappears and is now being used against the two succubus sisters who then force the attack into the sky and away from everyone. Morrigan looks to the last place Joe was located and finds a long silver haired version standing in his place with a silvery aura surrounding his body while a new source of power courses through his veins. Jeff comments on his elder brother's sudden gain of unnatural abilities. "Now that is impressive…" Smoke can be seen floating up from Joe's hands that are now resting comfortable at the sides of his body. "Wow, that attack nearly gave me second degree burns…" Angry with Joe's wise ass comment about her attack, Morrigan fires off a couple quick rounds of **"Soul Fists"** at the silver haired Joe and is shocked to the core as Joe charges at her attacks with a grin on his face. _What is he thinking? Does he think he can defeat my attacks that easily?_

Joe throws a hard right and deflects one of the balls into another, which on contact, negates both of the attacks at the same time. However, the third blast is still on target for his head and he counters by grabbing the attack with his left hand. The attack struggles to hit it's intended target and is snuffed out when Joe crushes the attack in his bare hand. "That all? I thought a Class S Darkstalker had more power than that." Morrigan splits herself in two and both images attacks Joe for a well timed assault. "The old double image move huh? I expected better from you Morrigan." The two images surrounds Joe and begins their tag team attack on Joe who defends against the two Morrigans by ducking and weaving past every punch, kick, and slash. Seeing an opening in the attack, Joe kicks one Morrigan into the other and is able to put a stop to her attack. Joe stands over the exhausted Morrigan and confidently folds his arms in victory.

"Give up?"

"Not quite."

"Huh?"

"Check out the area where your friends are." Joe notices that a Lilith shaped shadow on the ground is heading right for the house out of the corner of his right eye. "Better hurry unless you want to attend a funeral." Joe turns around and dashes after Lilith, who is currently invisible from the sight of the others standing at the back door to the house, in a desperate attempt to intercept the hidden attack. Jeff notices that his brother has left the crippled Morrigan and is running straight at them.

"Yo Joe, what's going on?" Joe launches himself into the air and lands with his back turned to the others at the edge of the backyard. He looks around frantically for something as his right fist begins to gather energy. _Damn it, there isn't enough time to use any of my attacks…huh?_ Jeff is standing at the door way with his "Buster Cylinder" clutched in hand; Joe snatches the device from him and aims it at the ground a few feet from the house.

"What are you doing!"

"You will thank me for this later Jeff."

Joe flips the switch of the device to the on position and releases a swirling energy beam at the unseen target. A few seconds later, an explosion rips a huge hole in the grass covered ground and reveals an unconscious Lilith who is buried up to her neck in fresh dirt. The others are left standing at the back of the house with clueless looks on their faces as Joe powers down to his normal self. He wipes away some sweat from his forehead with his bare arm. Joe tries to approach the defeated sisters and finds out that he is unable to move. _Damn, I guess my body has absorbed more damage than I first thought._ Straining to move his unresponsive body, Joe stumbles forward and falls flat onto his face. He strains to keep his eyes open as someone's voice saying his name echoes through his mind until he passes out.

Some time later…

_God my head hurts… huh?_ Joe cracks open his eyes and finds himself lying on the couch with another ice pack on his head. _I'm back inside the house? Where is everyone!_

"It's about time you woke up." Joe sits up on the couch and finds Jeff looking at him. He stands up and quickly collapses back down on the couch in an extremely fatigued state. Jeff places a large glass of water down on the coffee table in front of his tired brother and laughs at his condition. "That's what you get for trying to pick a fight with two Darkstalkers at the same time." Joe ignores his brother's wise ass comment and starts to drink down the water. "Oh, one other thing, Morrigan left "this" for you before they took off." Jeff places a large rolled up piece of tan paper with a strange seal on the table next to Joe.

"What is it?"

"The hell if I know. All Morrigan said was that this document will explain everything that has happened to you."

"Where are the others?"

"They're eating in the kitchen… again."

Curious about Morrigan's gift, Joe reaches over the table and tries to remove the seal from the document. He peels off the attached seal and unrolls the paper on the table. "This can't be possible… this thing is blank!" Joe slams his fists down on the hard wooden table in disgust and cracks a large piece off of the surface. He picks up the broken piece with his right hand and accidentally gives himself a small cut on his index finger. A small drop of blood falls on the blank paper and is absorbed into the fabrics of the strange document. As the small donation of blood dries, a large about of unreadable text appears like magic on the once barren paper and draws even more curiosity from the two humans.

"I can't make heads or tails out of this garbage. What about you…" Jeff trails off when he sees Joe frozen in a trance as if the text has a tight grip on his mind. The strange text begins to faintly glow red as the resonating red light reflects off of Joe's eyes. Concerned, Jeff shakes Joe by the shoulders and is unable to break him out of the strange condition. "Snap out of it Joe, you're freaking me out!" The hypnotized Joe gasps for air and finally returns to reality. Jeff sits back in his chair and sighs loudly. "You nearly gave me a heart attack Joe." Confused with his brother's actions and comment, Joe just shrugs off his brother's concern and looks at the paper again without saying a word. However, the paper has returned back to its wordless state and is once again unreadable.

_What's going on around here? One minute I can read and fully understand this document and the next it's blank._

"Before I forget, what did that thing say?"

"Something about the destined battle of Chaos and Shadow… but I don't know if it applies to my current situation." Joe rolls the paper up and wraps it together with the seal. Then he hands it to Jeff and stands up. "I want you to hide this in a safe place until I say otherwise. Also, I don't want you to tell anyone else about what I am about to say." Jeff chuckles at his brother's idea of acting tough and decides to play along. "What could be so bad that you have to hide it from the rest of the world Joe?" Joe turns around and gives Jeff a serious look. His eyes show almost no emotion as he utters words that would cause the listener to doubt their faith.

Joe's statement about his future smacks Jeff in the face like a ton of bricks. "You're going to…!" Joe dashes over and covers his brother's mouth before the others could hear him. "Listen to me, no one can ever find out about this." Jeff breaks free of his brother's grip and speaks to him in a low voice. "What could cause you to believe that?" Joe opens his mouth to explain the reason behind his preset destiny, but freezes as Felicia walks into the room.

"Oh Joe, I see you're awake." Joe steps in front of Felicia as Jeff walks out of the room with the paper Morrigan gave him. "What do you need Felicia?" The cat woman frowns as she holds up an empty milk carton and proves the fact that there is nothing inside by tipping the empty container over. "Oh. I have to do some shopping anyways, so milk is on the top of the list." Felicia smiles and heads back into the kitchen to finish her meal with her friends.

_I can't tell her… besides, it's better if Felicia didn't know about my fate. She would only try to interfere with my destiny._ Joe looks out the window towards the sunlit horizon and sighs to himself. _Soon, the battle between Chaos and Shadow will begin and according to Morrigan's gift the only way to stop it is…_

A loud crash from the kitchen forces Joe to stop his monologue so he can listen to the loud argument coming from the chaotic kitchen. Joe can see through the doorway that Lucy and Pico have decided to fight over the last helping of milk. "That's it Pico! Give me back that bowl before I get angry!" The younger cat girl jumps up onto a high part of a cupboard and sticks her tongue out at Lucy. Felicia and Grace are trying to clam them down while Alto and Nana just ignore the recent events and continue with their breakfast.

_Time will play its part soon enough, for now, I will try to enjoy life until that time comes. I just hope I am ready for whatever comes at me._

Meanwhile, Dami calls back his army of Shadow Huitzil from Joe's world and laughs at the destruction he is responsible for. "Soon I shall have the power necessary to escape this pathetic universe and then I shall rule over all!" While Dami plots his next move, a much deadlier threat waits in the deepest center of the Darkstalkers' World. Buried deep under the surface of the Makai, a black shapeless form slowly materializes out of the abyss of the darkness. Two dark blue eyes pierce through the darkness as a sinister laugh echoes through the measureless darkness.

_That Dami is a fool. He is so concerned with gaining more power and ignoring the fact that he is only channeling that power to me. Not even he knows that he is being used to aid my ultimate plan._

(End Episode 8)

* * *

_Trailer for the next episode…_

Joe: Darkstalkers, crazed renegade robots, an over powerful enemy who wants to kill me, and humans who are prejudice against all Darkstalkers… and I thought college life was hard. Not to mention that I now have a small group of cat people living under the same house as me and my brother and they eat as much as a small army. Plus, I have to keep Felicia and her friends from finding out that Darkstalkers are only a video game in my world unless I want a group of angry cat women to kill me. Not to mention that this damn hot weather is pissing me off!

Jeff: You think it's about time you explained this world to our "guests" before they decide to find out on their own?

Joe: ………

Felicia: Find out about what guys?

Joe: Uh, hi Felicia. (To Jeff: Why does she keep doing that?)

Jeff: (To Joe: Maybe she has the hots for you.)

Joe: What are you implying!

Felicia: Nyan? _What are they talking about?_

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 9: Heated Emotions**

Joe: God it's hot out.

Felicia: Well, if you were a cat person like me the heat wouldn't bother you as much.

* * *

**Author Note:** Well, that's the endof this installment, now go out and spread the word that the Darkstalkers will never die! Or you can just post your opinions, comments, and thoughts by reviewing this episode. 


	9. Heated Emotions

**Author Note:** Here's the ninth installment and a quick Character List. (Possible spoilers: You have been warned) Oh, and to make sure I don't forget anything, Happy Birthday America!

_Have appeared:_ Felicia (& friends), Morrigan, Lilith, Gallon (Dark Jon), Joe (the non-invincible "Chaos Stalker"), his bro Jeff (the tech wiz), and Dami (the main SOB), and those wacky Huitzil.

_Will appear:_ Donovan, Jon, Demitri, BB Hood, L. Raptor, Hsien-Ko (& Mei-Ling), Anakaris, Bishamon (Oboro too), Q-Bee, Victor, Phobos (the gold Huitzil), Pyron, Jedah, and the possible appearance of Marionette and Shadow.

For those who don't have a degree in the background to Darkstalker history: I used Phobos instead of Huitzil because it is a much cooler name. Same thing for the "Black" Jon. Rejoice devoted Jedah fans, he's coming to kick some major ass (probably Joe's ass). Shadow and Marionette are the two "ultimate" Darkstalkers, so of course I'm going to try and add them in the story. That Yeti and fish guy may just become punching bags because out of all of the Darkstalkers, I believe they are the lamest fighters ever created and have the worst storylines from the games.

(**Yet another caution from the author:** Ok, by now you should get the idea. But just to be safe, there's a high possibility for half-naked cat women and some bloodshed. For those who like Darkstalkers, read on. For the rest, uh… I don't know… go play outside or something.)

* * *

**_Episode 9: Heated Emotions_**

A period of three months have passed since the world of the Darkstalkers and Joe's world collided head first into each other with less than favorable results. It is noon as Joe walks home from his last day of exams at college and removes his jacket as the daytime heat of early summer kicks in. Even in his khaki shorts and button down shirt, the heat is still unbearable as the tired human heads home. The area is about to go on its second week of ninety to hundred degree temperatures and extremely dry conditions. This type of weather is not safe unless you are able to relax and cool off.

_Man, I could have done a lot better on my exams if it wasn't for the fact that I have to help provide food for two humans and six cat women. Between work, helping Jeff test out his new "toys" and dealing with the fact that am the only one who can stop Dami really hasn't helped me to prepare for finals. Telling mom and dad that I could take care of the house and the restaurant at the same time while they were on vacation wasn't one of my smartest ideas. Well, fighting those Black Huitzil once in a while gives me a chance to develop the power of my Chaos Stone and to dish out some my frustration at the same time._

Joe reaches the house and walks in the front door. "I'm home." No one answers him or comes to greet him as he walks into the house. _Strange, normally I would have been tackled by someone by now…_ He kicks off his shoes and drops his books down on a table before walking into the living room. As he opens the door, Joe is hit with a blast of hot air which nearly sucks the life out of him. _Why is it so damn hot in here?_ Joe fights his way to the kitchen and finds Felicia, Pico, Alto, and Nana lying around with numerous fans circulating the room trying to cool themselves off. They don't realize that Joe has walked into the room. "Are you guys ok?"

Felicia rolls over onto her chest and looks up at Joe. "Everything was fine until Jeff tried out his newest device." Joe places a hand over his face and tries not to believe what Felicia is about to say. "Let me guess, he destroyed the air conditioners didn't he?" Felicia nods and continues her story. "He went with Lucy and Grace to see if they could buy a new one." _I forgot that Lucy and Grace can hold their human forms for extended periods of time._ Joe grabs a pen and a pad of paper from the counter and quickly scribbles something down. He takes a piece of duct tape and sticks the note to the refrigerator's door. "Let's go guys." The confused cats look at Joe wondering why he is acting strange. "I'm taking you guys somewhere so you can relax and cool off for a while." Squeals of joy come from the three younger girls and they tackle Joe out of gratitude. _How did I know that this would happen?_ As Joe pulls the three happy cat girls off of him Felicia wanders over to him. "Jeff said not to leave the house until he got back."

"Don't worry about him, I'll take care of everything."

A few hours later Jeff, Lucy and Grace arrive back to the house in Jeff's car without a new air conditioner. "I guess I'll have to fix the one I broke." Lucy turns and yells at the guilty Jeff. "You better, this heat is unbearable even for us cat people and I don't wanna hear any comments about our lack of clothing either." They get out of the car and head inside to find everyone missing. After searching the entire house and coming up empty handed, they meet in the kitchen to try and come up with an idea to where the others went. Grace and Lucy have removed their clothing and have returned to their cat woman forms to cool off. Jeff looks at the refrigerator and spots Joe's note hanging from the freezer door. He takes it down and reads it to Lucy and Grace.

"_Hey Jeff, I took the others to cool off at our lake-side camp. If this is a problem, you can talk to me about it later. Signed, Joe."_

"That explains where everyone went." Grace comments on the note. "Is there something wrong?" Jeff crumples up the note and throws it across the room. "That idiot! What the hell was he thinking?" Jeff's unplanned aggression surprises the two cat women. Grace tries to pry more information out of an already angry Jeff. "What's so wrong with taking them to cool off?" Jeff pulls out the morning newspaper and points out a large article to them. "The government is beginning to search for anyone who they believe is responsible for the recent attacks remember?" Lucy reads the article and shrugs her shoulders. "It still doesn't explain why you're so angry."

"The government has also posted a one million dollar bounty for anyone who can bring in someone involved with the attacks. Last time I checked, you and my brother are the targets of this prejudice search." The grim reality settles into the minds of Lucy and Grace. "We don't have much time; while we were shopping I overheard some men talk about searching the area around the lake." Lucy and Grace leave the room and return fully clothed in their human forms. "If our friends are in danger because of your brother, we can't be standing around here waiting for something to happen."

While Jeff drives the two upset cat women up to the camp, Pico, Alto, and Nana are playing with a large beach ball in the shallow part of the lake just off the edge of the beach to the camp. Joe is sitting down with a pair of sunglasses over his eyes resting in the shade of a large tree. His dark blue shorts hang down to his knees as the warm sunlight begins to tan his lean body. He stretches his arms over his head and yawns from boredom as he continues to watch the kits play in the water. _When did I get stuck playing life guard?_ Joe peeks under his sunglasses and finds Felicia leaning over the edge of the dock looking at the water. Her tail sways back and forth as Joe tries to figure out Felicia. _What is she doing now?_ A vision runs through Joe's mind as he watches Felicia stare into the clear water. _That's strange; I could have sworn I saw Felicia fall into the water._

Just as Joe returns to reality, he sees Felicia starting to lose her balance and fall towards the water. Acting on impulse, Joe vanishes and reappears holding a quaking Felicia in arm. "Hey, you ok?" Felicia opens her eyes and finds herself tucked safely in Joe's left arm. Joe releases the stunned cat woman and follows her to the beach where Felicia sits down on a blanket and tries to cope the current situation. "How did you do that?"

"Do what?" Felicia points to where Joe was sitting only a few seconds ago. The sand near Joe's resting spot has been blown against the forest leaving a bare spot under the tree. "I have no idea." Felicia gives a puzzled look at Joe and forgets about it. "Can you do me a favor?" Joe turns to her and catches a small bottle with his left hand. "Huh?" Joe turns the bottle and reads the label. _This is…!_ "I need you to put some that sun screen on my back." Felicia lies facedown as Joe's heart begins to race inside his chest. _What the? Are we more than just friends?_

Felicia looks up at him with a weird look. "Are you gonna wait all day or what?" As Joe prepares to fulfill Felicia's request, she lays back down and reveals her plan to herself. _All of the times Joe saved me is not because he is just protecting himself. It is because he cares about me and this will prove it._ A few minutes pass by and Felicia becomes angry with Joe. "What's the deal?" Joe's entire face is beet red as he lies on his back with his eyes shut and the bottle of sun screen in hand. Felicia gets on her knees and shoves Joe a few times to try to wake him up. "What happened to him!"

"We did." The three younger cat girls are standing at the beach with sad looks on their faces. "We accidentally hit him in the face with the ball when he wasn't looking." As the four cats stand over the unresponsive Joe, a group of men armed with rifles exit the woods from behind them "Hey you! Leave that human alone!" They aim the weapons at the Darkstalkers and prepare to fire.

"Pico, take the others and leave now."

"But Felicia…" Felicia shoves Pico behind her and shields the others from the armed humans. "If I get caught, someone has to tell Joe where to find me. Now get moving!" The three kits take off running into the woods away from the group of angry humans, leaving Felicia alone to deal with them. However, one of the hunters spots the fleeing girls and fires off a round at them. The shot echoes in Felicia's ears and she moves to defend them without protecting herself. A sharp pain courses through Felicia's right arm as she hits the ground. She reaches over and feels a small needle like object that has pierced through her skin. _Damn, it's a stun dart… I'm starting to lose…_ A groggy Felicia collapses to the ground and strains to remain awake as the dart takes full effect on her system.

Several hours later, Joe finally wakes up and finds himself inside the camp on the couch with two very pissed off cat women standing over him. Lucy grabs Joe by his neck, hoists him above her head, and hisses at him. "What have you done with Felicia!" Joe struggles to give the upset Lucy an answer but is interrupted when Lucy's other fist slams into his face. The three younger girls look away as Joe spits out a large glob of blood to the floor as he rises to his feet. "I'm not holding back on the next one you bum." Horrified at Lucy's violent actions towards Joe, Grace comes to her senses and tries to clam her down. "That's enough Lucy, beating the life out of him won't help us get Felicia back."

Listening to Grace's common sense Lucy reluctantly backs away from Joe and allows him to reach a window. The evening sun is still hanging over the lake as he tries to think of an idea. His train of thought is broken when Alto speaks up to the group. "When they took Felicia away, I sort of followed them back to their camp." The others are surprised to learn that the youngest of them has the information needed to rescue their captive friend. "I can show you where they are; does this mean we can help Felicia?" Joe walks over and places a hand on top of Alto's head. "It's because of you we can bust her out." The little cat girl mews happily as Joe turns to the others. "Ok listen up! We only have a few hours before nightfall so we have to move fast."

While her friends plan her escape, Felicia is being interrogated by a guard when a red hooded girl named B.B. Hood walks into the tent. The visitor places a large hand basket down on a table and approaches Felicia who has been placed in heavy chains to prevent her from escaping. Even Felicia's tail has been tied down so that there is no possible way for her to escape the captors. Seeing the red hood, the guard approaches the visitor and reports to her. "Boss, this creature refuses to speak to anyone about the ones traveling with her. I believe it's time for me to do some of my "special" questioning." The girl turns and drops the guard to the ground with a well placed punch to the stomach. "But Boss, I was only…" This time the girl pulls out a large combat knife and holds it to the neck of the fallen guard. "…ok I'll leave you alone."

Once the guard hobbles out of the tent, the girl puts away her knife and gives her full attention to the chained cat woman. "I know you can understand me, so start talking." Felicia opens her eyes and looks up at the girl. "What makes you think I'll tell you where my friends are!" An evil smile comes across BB's face as she reaches into her sleeve and pulls out a machine gun. "I can find that information one way or another. Either way, I'm still going to make a killing when I turn you in to the authorities for that bounty." Hood sticks the gun against Felicia's neck with her finger on the trigger. "Since I really don't like you Darkstalkers, should I just end your life now or should I let my men have their way with you? It's your choice." Felicia whimpers softly to herself since both of Hood's ideas don't seem to have a happy ending.

Seeing that Felicia isn't going to answer anytime soon, she decides for her. "You wanna die?" The hooded psychopath knocks Felicia down on her chest and places the gun to the back of her head. "I can arrange that for you!" Small tears roll down Felicia's face as BB tightens the trigger on her gun. Suddenly a large explosion rocks the area causing BB to forget about ending Felicia's life. "What the # is going on?" One of the other hired hunters rushes into the tent out of breath and reports to the angry leader.

"Boss, some strange guy wearing sunglasses is tearing the camp apart!"

"Who is this guy?"

"We don't know. He's already taken down a half dozen of our best guys and he is still coming."

"I want this guy taken care of immediately or else." The messenger runs out of the tent to deliver the new orders to the others. _Is this guy a Darkstalker to rescue this cat? It doesn't matter; I still have my secret weapons on standby just waiting to kill anyone who dares to get in my way._ Two dark outlines appear in back of the tent as BB Hood gives an evil laugh. One has a large sword while the other is wearing very long clothing with two large claws at their side.

* * *

**Episode Break**

Jeff and Joe are fishing off of opposite sides of their dock while the cat women watch to see what they catch for dinner. Suddenly, both lines pull tight and they hustle to reel in their catch before it gets away. Jeff brings his in first and it's a nice ten inch bass while Joe continues to fight with his catch. He transforms into his "Chaos Mode" and gives one final hard pull to win the fight. His catch pops out of the water and lands on the dock with a loud thud. A sweat drop rolls down the back of his head as the fighting merman, Rikuo flops up and down on the dock with the fishing hook stuck in his mouth. He has gone from guardian of the seas to the catch of the day thanks to Joe.

Seeing the extra large fish that Joe has reeled in, the cats tie "We love Fish" bibs around their necks and dash for the dock with hungry looks in their eyes. The beached Rikuo removes the hook from his mouth and dives back into the water just as the hungry cat women reach the far end of the dock. They are upset that Joe has allowed their dinner to swim away. Sensing trouble, Joe smiles and tries to change their minds. "So, who wants pizza?"

Moments later…

Jeff is laughing his ass off watching his silver haired brother being pummeled by six very angry and hungry cat women.

"It was just a joke!"

"That wasn't funny!"

**Episode Break Over

* * *

**

The sun began to set as another round of explosions echo through the area as the outline of the unknown assailant makes its way into the campsite. A confidant, yet shirtless Joe continues to cut a path of devastation through the campsite by firing off a double dose of **"Chaos Shots"** into a tent holding a large amount of ammunition. The impending explosion forces several hired men to run for their lives as the burning ammo explodes into a huge fireball which levels a large section of the campsite. _I guess blowing up the ammo tent was a bad idea after all._ A surprised BB Hood looks out her tent and is amazed to see that a single person has scattered her men and destroyed most of the supplies needed to hunt down the wanted creatures of the dark. Felicia looks up from the floor and is able to see the silver haired Joe standing heroically in the center of a ring of flaming debris.

As the shaded Joe prepares to launch another volley of attacks, he is interrupted by the sound of someone's applause. He turns to his right and finds BB Hood clapping her hands as she walks out of a tent not set ablaze by Joe. She stands several yards away from the unwanted visitor and crosses her arms. "So, you the one who has been giving my men a hard time?" Joe faces the hooded killer and replies. "What if I am?" Hearing Joe's answer, BB Hood begins to laugh loudly which confuses Joe. "I like your attitude buddy. Say, why not join up with us? I'll pay you handsomely and we can forget that any of this ever happened. What do ya say?" Now after hearing the job offer from the little psycho, Joe gives her his refusal. "Sorry, but I already have a job and that is protecting the one who you have decided to hold against her will."

The chained Felicia is dragged out of the tent by a muscular man and thrown at Joe's feet. BB Hood reaches into a pocket and tosses at small key at Joe who easily catches it with one hand. "That's the key needed to release your friend from her restraints. You are free to do whatever you want to her…" Joe ignores the rest of BB Hood's explanation and begins to free Felicia. He finds that the key BB has given him doesn't work. So he uses his own key and breaks Felicia's chains with his hands charged with a small amount of gathered energy. After removing the chains that once wrapped her body, Joe snaps off the spiked collar from Felicia's neck and checks on her condition.

"Felicia, are you hurt?" The freed Felicia stands up and leans against Joe's left shoulder. "No. I'm just tired." Joe places her right arm over his back and prepares to head home when BB Hood stops him by firing a bullet at the ground in front of them from her fully loaded gun. "You didn't hear me did you?" Twenty men equipped with flame throwers quickly surround Joe and Felicia and await their next order from their boss. "I said, "You are free to do whatever you want to her, if you are able to leave this place alive! Open Fire!"

The men ignite their weapons and attack the two of them with streams of fiery death. _Time to use a couple of new techniques on these fools._ Both targets are engulfed in a pillar of fire which scorches a fifty foot circle in the ground. The men turn off their weapons once the image of the silver haired hero vanishes in the torrent of fire and begin to celebrate their victory. However, three individuals are watching the current event from the top of a hill that is two miles from the campsite. The three spectators turn out to be Donovan, Hsien-Ko, and her sister Mei-Ling. Behind them, Anita is sleeping peacefully in the backseat of the hunter sisters' car unaware of Joe's presence.

"So sis, you think that guy who was protecting that Darkstalker has bit the dust?"

"I don't know Hsien-Ko. What about you Donovan?"

"………"

"Wow, now that was informative."

"Quiet. Something's happening down there."

The pillar of fire suddenly begins to vanish and Joe exits the pillar unhurt carrying Felicia in his arms. A blue sphere of energy encases the both of them and starts to spin in a counter-clockwise direction as the weakening pillar of fire finally breaks apart. Frightened by the sudden change in the supposed deathblow, the hunters rush to escape with their lives. Joe notices the fleeing men and slowly heads down to land. "I'm through playing around with you guys. I gave you a chance to leave unhurt… now I have to finish this!" Joe's sphere starts to spin faster causing the gathered energy to be amplified many times. He lands on the ground and unleashes all of the energy from within his body. **"Chaos Explosion!"**

The entire campsite as well as a quarter mile of forest has been completely destroyed by Joe's newest attack. Even though the whole area has been laid to waste, Joe looks around and finds that not a single human has been killed by his attack. His sun glasses have been turned into a pile of shattered plastic. _Good, I held back just enough to prevent any deaths. They are not going to remember anything about today thanks to the concussions I gave them. I cannot ever use this attack again in such a close range. This move the "Chaos Explosion" is far too powerful to be used without first putting up my **"Chaos Barrier"** as a shield to protect me from any recoil. Who knows what would happen if I attacked without protecting myself. _Felicia looks up at the victorious Joe from the warm embrace of his arms. "Ready to head back now?" The tired Felicia gives a quick nod and Joe starts walking back to the camp while the three self-employed hunters watch his every move.

"So, are we going to go after him?" Mei-Ling shakes her head in disagreement to Hsien-Ko's desire to give chase. "Why not? He's nearly burned out from that attack, we could finish him off easily." Donovan slams his sword into the ground to silence Hsien-Ko. "Must you chase after your own demise?" He removes the super sized blade from the ground and heads for the car. "What was that? I thought I just heard you say something about me chasing death? Hey, don't you ignore me!"

"Forget about that guy for now Hsien-Ko. We will deal with him when the time comes."

"Yea all right. Hey, what about our money from that punk kid?"

"Unless you want to end up getting shot, I suggest we leave before she wakes up."

"Agreed. That kid will shoot at anything when she is pissed off."

Late that night, at about three in the morning, Joe is still wide awake lying on the carpeted floor of his camp next to a smoldering fire with a folded blanket for a pillow. He throws another log onto the dying fire and is able to rekindle the smoldering remains back into a roaring blaze by poking the hot cinders to ignite the fresh wood. Joe sits back down and stares into the fire. Everyone is sleeping in their own bed, but because there wasn't enough for everyone, Jeff decided to volunteer him for the use of the downstairs couch. He thinks back on yesterday's events and his actions. _I should have never brought the girls up here. I put them all in a dangerous situation which could have ended in tragedy. They could have been…_

Just then, someone's footsteps coming from the stairs causes Joe to sit up and identify his visitor. The late night visitor turns out to be a half asleep Felicia who drags her tail across the floor and sits down next to Joe in front of the fire. After taking a deep breath, Joe decides to apologize for his actions and irresponsibly. "Felicia, I have something to tell you." The sleepy cat girl yawns and rests her head down on Joe's left arm. "Felicia!"

"Nyan! What is it?" She sits up and faces him with a curious look on her face. "I'm sorry for putting you and your friends in danger. It was dumb and you should leave before something…" Hearing only a sentence and a half of Joe's confession, Felicia knocks him to his back and crawls on top of him. She wraps her arms around him and rests her head down on his chest. "Can I stay like this, just for tonight?" Wanting to know more about Felicia's strange request, Joe attempts to pry more information out of her. "Is something wrong with your bed?" Felicia laughs and says no. "Then what is the matter?"

"When I was a kid, I used to sleep just like this with Rose because it made me feel secure and loved."

"So, I remind you of your mother huh?"

"That's not true. For some strange reason, I feel like… I don't know, as if nothing bad can happen as long you are near me Joe."

"What? Are you saying you love me Felicia?"

"I really like you as a friend Joe. But love is not what I'm feeling now."

"Oh…"

The two of them lay silent for a few minutes before Felicia changes the subject. Darkness begins to fill the room as the fire beings to die down. "Why didn't Jeff come with you to help you rescue me?" Joe reaches into the pocket of his night pants and pulls out a piece of white paper for Felicia to read. "This is an updated list of endangered species in my world. Jeff was able to hack into the government and was able to add "cat people" to the list. Now if anyone tries to hunt you, they will be breaking the law." Felicia is depressed at hearing Joe's statement. "Does this mean you won't come to help me if I get in trouble?" Joe places his right hand on Felicia's head between her ears and smiles. "No, this only means that people can't harm you when I'm not around to break their faces."

"Thank you Joe and good night."

Joe goes to return Felicia's embrace and freezes. He instead unrolls the blanket from under his head and places it over them just as the fire in the fireplace burns out for the night.

(End Episode 9)

* * *

_Trailer for the next episode…_

Jeff: So, Felicia shot you down huh?

Joe: No, we're just close friends and that's all.

Jeff: I guess she would rather have a strong "wolf" in bed than a man huh?

Joe: You really know how to piss someone off don't you?

Jeff: Getting back to business, my "Stalker Scanner" is picking up two Darkstalkers in the city… this can't be right.

Joe: What?

Jeff: Seems as if I got a bug to work out. It says there are two werewolves fighting each other in the downtown. Hey, where are you going!

Joe: I'm going to investigate. I'll be back soon. _Gallon, this time I'll make sure to kill you for hurting Felicia._

Jeff: Before you go, take these. (Hands Joe a large basket full of lemons)

Joe: (Takes basket and slams it on top of Jeff's head shattering it to pieces.) Damn idiot.

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 10: Half-breeds**

Gallon: I will not allow myself to lose a second time to either of you.

Jon: I don't needhelpfroma human.

Joe: Damn it Jon! If we don't help each other, we're both going to die.

Jon: I'd rather die than accept help from a human.

Joe: You conceded son of a…

* * *

**Author Note:** Ok, now I need a vacation to recover from writing this much. Keep tuned and remember… more reviews equals faster updates. And remember to visit my homepage (see my profile for the site) cause I may get my Darkstalker sprite comics up soon. Also, my brother has decided to turn this story into manga form which will also be placed on my site at a later date. 


	10. Halfbreeds

**Author Note:** For those who don't know already, Felicia thinks of Joe as "only a friend" (for now…). And don't worry, the any fight against Pyron, Jedah, Dami, or any other high powered enemy will not simply be swept aside by Joe or anyone else. And thanks to Chemical for reminding me about Felicia being from Kansas. Now if I could only find a place in my story to add it in. I see my story was under the #5 slot from several updates… guess it's time for a new installment.

**Correction**: I have to make this quick before the hordes of Morrigan fans from flaming me. The name of the attack Morrigan used after fusing with Lilith in an earlier chapter is not "Darkness Cannon". The correct name of the attack is called "Soul Eraser".

* * *

**_Episode 10: Half-breeds_**

The sun rises and shines through the forest to greet Joe who is sitting down on a tree stump meditating in his transformed state in an attempt to reach a new level of power from within his Chaos Stone. He has buried himself in thought for the last hour only to become frustrated with himself and taking out his anger by firing a quick "Chaos Shot" at a defenseless tree. The anger driven attack ricochets off of the tree and explodes into Joe's chest. After brushing the charred remains of his light weight jacket from his long silver hair, Joe powers down and heads back to the camp for some rest. _Damn! I couldn't power up any higher than when I used my "Chaos Explosion" attack. Maybe Jeff was right when he said I could only use my power to defend and not destroy. This "training" program he has on me is a waste of my time which should be used to hunt down Dami. That is if I knew where the hell he was located…_

Joe comes around the front of the camp and finds his car missing. _Guess Jeff took the others home…I hate driving his car._ He enters the camp and finds Jeff sitting in the entrance way calmly reading the morning paper. "What are you doing here? Didn't you take the others home?" Jeff looks up from the local section and shrugs his shoulders. "I told Lucy about a half hour ago she could take your car and drive the others home." Joe sighs and walks into the kitchen unaware of Jeff's answer. Reality crashes into Joe's mind just as he is about to pour himself a fresh cup of coffee. "You told them what?"

Before Jeff can plead his case to the concerned Joe, they are interrupted by the phone's loud ringing. Jeff answers the cordless phone and tosses it over to Joe. "Hello? Oh hey Kyle… what do you mean you quit? Give me one good reason you are quitting your job from our restaurant." Several minutes later… "I see. Ok then, bye." Joe places the phone down and places his right hand over his face in disgust. "That was Kyle and the other waiters from the restaurant. They all decided to quit yesterday and couldn't reach me." A stunned Jeff keeps the paper raised over his head when he asks a question he already knows the answer to. "Did he say why they quit?" Joe shrugs his shoulders and gives a half hearted laugh. "He said that they couldn't work for a boss that would be on the side of the "night killers" or something like that. Besides, I didn't even add my name to…" Jeff is trying to sneak away unnoticed but is caught with one foot out the door. Joe looms behind him with an evil glare in his eyes. He cracks his knuckles loudly and places an open hand on Jeff's left shoulder. "You added my name to the hacked file last night, didn't you?" Jeff slowly turns his head around and squeezes out an answer. "I needed a creditable name and well…"

(The following confrontation was too one sided to write, so here's the short version. Jeff was _owned_ by his Chaos powered brother.)

After the quick beating, the two brothers made their way back to the city in Jeff's car. They turned the corner and found their family run business open and plenty of customers lined out the door and around the corner. "The hell is going on?" Jeff parked the car in back and they enter through the delivery entrance. Several long time customers have filled the building to capacity along with some new faces. A strange smell comes out of the kitchen and catches the interest of the hungry customers. "Is that the new dish you guys got cooking back there?"

"I'll go check on that." Joe leans over to Jeff and whispers something to him. "Did you add something new?"

"No. You better go find out whose back there while I handle this mess."

Joe walks around the front counter and heads towards the kitchen. The unknown aroma that has attracted the large crowd grows stronger as he closes in on the source. He swings open the double metal doors and is shocked to find the group of cat women working around a huge steaming vat containing a red substance cooking on the main stove. The crowd pleasing aroma seems to originate from the extra large pot and now has Joe curious. "Ok guys. What's in that pot that has people knocking down our door to get?"

Pico runs up to him with a small cup sized sample of their concoction. Against his better judgment, Joe swallows down the sample and is surprised to find out that the liquid has a fishy taste with a kick of spice. Wanting answers to the new rave, Joe questions the working cat women. "What is this? It's good." Everyone points to Grace for the new meal. "It's just my favorite dish, "Hot Fish Chowder". I guess there are a lot of people who like it." Jeff sticks his head in the door and takes no notice of the cats.

"Hey Joe, are we gonna open today or what? These people are about to riot if we don't start serving them soon. By the way, what is that stuff?"

"I'll explain later. Can you guys keep making that stuff until closing time?" The six cats cheer loudly as Joe prepares for one hell of a busy day of work. _It's gonna be one of those days._

Meanwhile, a traveler wearing a long dark blue cloak is making his way towards the outskirts of the city from the forest. He stops, looks in the direction of the restaurant and laughs to himself. _That awful scent is still coming from that direction. I can't believe it has the same disgusting smell of human blood mixed with my other half's blood. Once night comes… I shall take both of their lives!_

After selling nearly a truck load of Grace's special chowder, an exhausted Joe flips the open sign hanging from the front door to the closed position and pulls the shades down over the windows. He unties his apron from his waist, takes a seat at the counter, and collapses on the countertop. _Man that was one busy day. A few more days like today and we may never have to worry about paying bills again. Mom and Dad will be so proud!_ Felicia walks in and places the last bowl of Grace's chowder down in front of Joe. "Eat this; you have to keep your strength up in case you have to fight." _Felicia…_ "Thanks. By the way, did Jeff take the others home?"

"He left with them a few minutes ago. Hurry up and eat so we can go home too."

"Alright, I'll hurry."

Joe grabs a clean spoon from behind the counter and readies himself for dinner when suddenly, the front door blows open and a strong gust of wind explodes into the room. Joe's bowl is knocked off of the counter and smashes to the floor behind the counter. Felicia bends over to pick up the pieces when a rough voice enters the restaurant. "How dare you force her to pick up your mess!" As Joe turns around to see who is yelling at him, he is greeted with the bottom of someone's leather boot. The kick sends Joe sliding across the freshly waxed floor and into the wall. A worried Felicia ignores the mess and hurdles over the counter to check on Joe.

"Are you hurt?" Joe sits up on the floor and brushes a piece of the broken bowl from his hair. "Nah, I'm fine." He checks for any missing teeth and notices a person standing where he was sitting wearing a dark blue cloak preventing anyone from identifying the visitor. "Looks like we won't be heading home just yet Felicia. Can we take this outside? I don't want to wreak the place when I kick your ass."

"Fine."

The confrontation between Joe and the unknown visitor has moved out back to prevent any damages to the building. Dusk begins to settle in as a full moon rises over the heads of the two combatants. Felicia stands on the loading dock giving Joe the knowledge that she is out of harms way. "Before we get started, I want to know something."

"And that would be?"

"Who are you and why have you attacked me?"

"All will be answered soon human."

_His voice… it's become deeper and more wolf-like…_ "Is that you Gallon? Show your face you coward!"

The clouds separate and the full moon shines down on the cloaked figure. "You want a werewolf? You got one!" The cloak is torn to shreds and reveals the image of the blue furred werewolf Jon Talbain standing in front of Joe. "Ready to die human?" Wasting no time, Jon lunges at Joe with his **"Beast Cannon"** and knocks him high into the air. During his mid-air tumble, Joe tries to figure out his situation. _Why is Jon attacking me?_ "I'm not going to die that easily Jon." Joe touches down on the ground a few yards from Jon and prepares to go one-on-one with him until Felicia decides to interrupt the fight by stepping between them. "Felicia, move away. You are going to get hurt."

"The two of you shouldn't be fighting. You might end up killing each other." Jon growls loudly and shoves Felicia out of the way. "But Jon!" Felicia tries to reason with him and instead is knocked backwards into a pile of empty cardboard boxes by Jon charging another **"Beast Cannon"**. "Oh that's it wolf boy, I'm taking you out!" In an instant Joe transforms and at the same time begins to charge his **"Chaos Breaker"** in his right hand. The two combatants' auras violently spin around their bodies and cause a massive wind storm in the immediate area. Felicia quickly recovers just in time to see both fighters charge head long at one another with their charged attacks ready to deal out some heavy damage. _There's only one thing left I can do to stop them. I hope Joe can forgive me…_

_I'll try not to kill him since he's Felicia's friend. What is Felicia doing? Wait a second Felicia!_ Joe is slammed from his right by Felicia performing her **"Rolling Buckler"** which stuns her friend and finishes him off with a well placed **"Delta Kick"** to the chest sending him into the side of a dumpster preventing his attack from hitting Jon. The sudden collision with the hard metal dumpster knocks Joe out and cause him to power down. Jon halts his attack on his own and walks over to Felicia for an explanation. "Why did you interfere? I would have…" Felicia slaps Jon across his pointy, tooth filled snout with the back of her furry paw. "I don't want you two fighting each other, do you understand me?"

"Are you still in the business of protection these humans Felicia? When will you realize that they aren't worth the time of day to protect?"

"Shut up Jon! Joe is different from other humans. He's…" Felicia freezes in the middle of her argument with the transformed Jon about the difference between Joe and the rest of the human race. "How is that guy different from the rest of them. Is it because you feel sorry for him because he is shunned by his own people or is it something else?"

Before the confused Felicia can deliver an answer to Jon, a pillar of green energy descends towards the two unsuspecting Darkstalkers. "Move away!" Joe comes flying in from the right and shoves the two arguing Darkstalkers out from underneath the pillar just as it crashes down on top of Joe. The pillar has created a six foot circular barrier around him which to Joe's surprise, he cannot break free of. Felicia runs towards the sealed Joe and crashes into the barrier. She puts her hands against the barrier and is lightly shocked. "Joe are you ok?" Joe gives the barrier a hard kick and is knocked to the ground. "Don't worry about me. Just get away before…"

"Before what human?"

Everyone turns around to find Gallon standing on the roof of the next door building with his black fur swaying in the wind. Joe clenches his fists in an attempt to regain his power and fails. "What the…?" He tries once again and gets the same unwanted results. Felicia turns around and finds Joe still inside the barrier. "What's wrong? Why haven't you broken out yet?" Joe screams out of frustration and punches the barrier hard just to be shocked by his own stupidity. "I can't transform! Something's interfering with the process." Joe's obvious statement causes Gallon to laugh. "What's so damn funny?"

"Master Dami was right. You really don't have any idea to what you have been granted do you?" The dark furred werewolf jumps down and stands at a safe distance from the battle ready Darkstalkers. He spots Felicia by the barrier and is surprised to find his "brother" ready to fight him. "So I see my weaker half is here as well. Why not go back to training children Jon? You know you cannot defeat me even if you trained for a thousand years!" Jon lunges at Gallon with his claws fully extended and swipes at him several times. Gallon slightly leans to both sides and avoids the claw swipes with ease. He delivers a quick punch to Jon's chin which causes Jon to fall back and regroup.

Seeing his chance to strike again, Gallon pulls out a small dish sized ring and throws it at Jon. Felicia remembers the object from before and tries to warn Jon. "Don't let it touch you!" The blue werewolf jumps high into the air and avoids the ring. Gallon laughs at Jon's dodge and points to something behind him. "That won't save you." Jon turns around in mid-air to find that the ring has changed direction and is now right behind him. The ring collides into Jon and tightly locks itself around his neck. Next the ring sends Jon crashing to the ground and prevents him from standing up. "What is this?" Jon tries to use his aura to break the ring's hold but it fails to remove the ring. Gallon looks at the two confined fighters and laughs at their current situation. "Now that my opponents are dealt with…" He turns his head and finds Felicia standing between the two disabled warriors and smirks. "…it's time for me to complete my mission."

* * *

**Episode Break**

A transformed Joe is talking with Larry King on his program while Felicia is lying on Joe's lap in her full cat form. She purrs loudly as Joe scratches her behind her ears. "So, you have been fighting along these "Darkstalkers" am I correct?" Joe stops scratching Felicia and answers Larry's question. "Yes, I have."

"But some believe that these creature are evil and should be killed."

"That is just people being stupid! Give them a chance to explain and…"

"I'm sorry to interrupt. But we have breaking news. It seems a large number of black robots have decided to attack the studio!" A large explosion rips the set apart revealing a huge number of Dami's Huitzil marching without fear towards the set. "I can't believe they would attack now. Let's go Felicia!" The white cat jumps off of Joe's shoulder and transforms. The two fighters dash towards the metal army as Larry closes out his show. "Join us tomorrow when we interview a damp wire… who writes this crap!" A loud, incoming whistle can be heard over the sound of gunfire. "Yo Larry, heads up!"

**Episode Break Over **

**

* * *

**

Gallon confidently walks past the pinned Jon and up to Felicia who is standing next to the sealed Joe. "Felicia, get out of here now!" The concerned cat woman faces up to Joe. "I can't leave the two of you here while Gallon has the two of you trapped." Gallon dashes at Felicia who jumps away from the sudden attack and prepares to defend herself. Gallon laughs at Felicia's fighting stance and charges for his version of the "Beast Cannon". Joe watches helplessly as Gallon barrels down on Felicia. _I can't believe this is happening! I have to break out but this damn barrier is preventing me from powering up._ As Gallon approaches Felicia, she surprises everyone by sliding under his attack and plants a hard kick to his head. Felicia's attack disrupting Gallon's concentration and sends him crashing head first into a wall. Not wasting any time thinking about her next move, Felicia jumps at Gallon and begins slashing him with her claws. Halfway through Felicia's assault, Gallon slams a fist into Felicia's left hip causing her to break off.

Wiping away a small trickle of blood from his mouth, Gallon looks at his own blood and snarls. "You are either very lucky or very strong to make me bleed cat. Still…" Gallon flashes his nails and charges for Felicia. "…you are not very smart if you chose to fight me!" Felicia dodges a quick slash by flipping over the charging Gallon. After making a save landing, Felicia turns around to find that Gallon has vanished! She looks around frantically to find him but her search ends when his voice echoes off of the nearby buildings. "Can you find me before I deliver the final blow to our little match?" Felicia closes her eyes and decides to use her ears to find Gallon's position.

After a few tense moments, Felicia's ears begin to twitch and she reopens hers eyes. _Got him._ She turns around and gives a hard slash into Gallon's head. To Felicia's horror, her slash has passed through Gallon's body and the image fades into thin air. _It was an illusion!_ The real Gallon reappears behind the frightened Felicia and breathes down her neck. "Game over." Gallon grabs Felicia by her tail and throws her over his shoulder. He slams her down on her back to the cold concrete and then plows a kick into the middle of her body knocking the air from her lungs. Felicia grabs her stomach and coughs for air as Gallon smiles at the pain her has caused. "I win."

Sick of watching Gallon's relentless attack on his friend, Joe is busy slamming his fists into the barrier trying to break the "unbreakable" barrier. The only thing that comes out of punching the barrier is that Joe's knuckles have become raw. Joe falls to his knees and nearly breaks his right hand when he slams his right hand into the ground. _There has to be a way out of here… Hold on, does this barrier extend underground?_ He looks at Jon and finds him still pinned face first into the ground. "Hey Jon, you think you can use your **"Missile Kick"**?" The blue werewolf becomes angry with the idea of working with a human. "Why should I help you? You have turned Felicia into a slave for your own personal needs." Joe sighs and gives Jon the short explanation of why he is with Felicia. "Now do you understand Jon? She is not under my control. Felicia has her own free will and I respect that."

Jon pushes off of the ground with his arms and performs an inverted headstand. "I don't like the idea of helping humans. However, that guy is my problem and I cannot allow him to hurt anyone while I'm around!" Motivated by his drive to defeat his dark self, Jon activates his attack and slams it into the ground causing the energy to travel towards the sealed Joe. The attack is negated by the barrier and has left a large fissure in the ground which travels underneath the barrier to Joe. "Thanks Jon." Joe jumps into the fissure and vanishes into the darkness in a small spark of light.

Meanwhile, Gallon picks up the beaten cat woman after kicking her and holds her above him in victory. "See? No one can beat me! Now I can kill you in front of…" Gallon turns around and finds Joe and Jon missing from their restraints. He spots the fissure in the ground and returns back to Felicia. "Guess I have to do the short version." The killer werewolf tightens his grip on Felicia's neck and forcefully stops her from breathing. Just then, Gallon his struck by a glowing blue object and loses his grip on Felicia. A second silver colored object flies by and takes Felicia away from Gallon. Enraged, Gallon turns around to find Joe and Jon standing next to each other with Felicia leaning against the side of Joe's car. "Why are the two of you working together? You should be tearing each other apart!"

"There is only one thing we have in common…" The two freed warriors begin to gather energy around their bodies. Their eyes resonate from the gathering power and they take position. "…and that is our hatred of YOU!" Gallon quickly fires his **"Dragoon Cannon"** at the two of them. "How many times do I have to tell you? It's called **"DRAGON Cannon"**!" Jon launches his counter-attack and smashes into Gallon's. The two flaming dragons enter a stalemate as Gallon mocks Jon's attempt at defeating him. "You are still too weak to beat me!"

"That attack was only a diversion."

"What?" Gallon looks above Jon and finds Joe with both arms covered in his gathered energy. "Now's your chance human!"

Joe's arms vibrate violently as he tries to control the experimental attack. "That move is getting old Gallon. How about if I add a new twist onto it? I call this one my **"Chaos Cannon"**!" Both arms fire off large beams of energy which merge into a single swirling mass of energy and crashes directly into Gallon's body. While Joe's attack pummels away at Gallon, Jon adds extra energy to his attack and shatters through Gallon's attack. By the time Joe's attack wears out, Gallon survives his attack but is unable to move. "You damn human, did you think that would kill me?" Joe laughs and points down. "No, I think "that" will kill you." The red dragon barrels down on Gallon who is directly struck in front by the flaming attack. Gallon's voice echoes through the area as the fire spins around him. "Don't think that this is over. I'll be back and next time human, you AND that half-breed of an ally you have will suffer!" Gallon is consumed by the swirling fire and has vanished when the fire dissipates.

Jon looks up and watches as Joe lands on the ground next to him and powers down. The tired human sighs and holds out a hand to congratulate Jon on a job well done. "Hey, thanks for the assist. If you didn't attack him, I would never have gotten a chance to try out my new attack." Jon smacks away Joe's friendly gesture from him. "I only attacked because he was right in front of me. Your help wasn't necessary." Joe laughs and pats Jon on the back. "You can cut out the tough guy act, Felicia can't hear you anyways." Annoyed, Jon tries to bite Joe who backs away from the agitated werewolf and readies for another fight. "I may be worn out, but I might have enough strength to take you on wolf boy."

"Same here human."

The former allies turn towards each other and prepare to finish their fight from just before Felicia interrupted. Once again the wind begins to kick up as the two fighters start to gather the last of their energy for one final confrontation. As Joe's hair shifts into it's silver mode, the hunched over Felicia begins to wake up. Jon takes notice of Felicia's recovery and dashes past Joe using his **"Beast Cannon"** as a propellant. "We'll settle this later human. By the way, if I find out you have hurt Felicia in any way the next time we meet, I'll be sure to kill you." The blue werewolf turns around the corner of the building and flies down the empty street. Garbage cans and other assorted rubbish are caught in Jon's back draft and follow him until he escapes Joe's sight. _That guy needs a better way to make friends._

Joe and kneels down next to the recovering Felicia and checks her condition. Felicia struggles to stand up as Joe grabs onto her shoulders to prevent her from moving. "Try not to move too quickly yet. You took quite a beating Felicia." Thinking she is still in danger, Felicia lunges forward and bites down hard on the person in front of her without looking. Felicia's bite has cut into Joe's left shoulder tearing several small holes through his shirt. It takes Felicia a few seconds to regain her senses and is shocked to find her teeth dug into Joe's shoulder. Small trickles of blood exit the bite marks when Felicia removes her teeth from Joe. "I'm so sorry!" Joe covers the open wound with his right hand and helps Felicia to her feet. "It's not that bad. There isn't any major damage I can find… let's head home."

As Joe drives the two of them home, Gallon watches them from the top of a nearby building with something clutched in his claws. A fresh scar over his right eye prevents him from opening the injured eye. "That human will pay for this "gift" he left me." Gallon looks at the ground and finds a few drops of fresh blood from Joe's wound lying on the ground. "He has enough problems to deal with until Master Dami can finish his project." He opens his claw to reveal a couple of long blue hair samples still grasped tightly between his fingers.

Late that night, Joe wakes up from his sleep in his bed covered in sweat. He goes into the bathroom and wipes his sweaty face down with a warm washcloth. _What's going on? Why do I feel so strange all of a sudden?_ Joe turns on the light by the mirror mounted on the wall above the sink and looks into the reflecting image as the light fills the room. _What the hell is this? I'm…_ A loud roar and the sound of shattering glass knocks everyone up from their beds. They meet at the top of the stairs and try to figure out what could have caused the noise at three in the morning. Jeff is the first one to comment as Felicia goes to get Joe. "Uh, anyone know what's going on?" Everyone shrugs as a scream comes from the bathroom. The group rushes to the doorway to find Felicia pointing at someone standing in Joe's room coated in darkness. "Who the hell are you? Show yourself!"

Jeff pulls out the redesigned "Buster Cylinder" and aims it at the intruder. Felicia notices the weapon and lunges at Jeff. "Don't fire!" He squeezes the trigger of the pistol shaped weapon tight when Felicia suddenly knocks the weapon's barrel away from the unseen intruder at the last second. The blast of energy explodes through a wall allowing the black figure to escape into the night. "What was that for!" Felicia looks away from the others and doesn't answer Jeff who runs into the room and looks out the hole. The unknown visitor has vanished into the night as Jeff surveys the trashed room. _This place is a mess but there isn't any blood to be found any where. So what happened in here?_ Grace walks over to the silent Felicia and asks the same question. "What's going on Felicia? Why did you protect that person and where is Joe?" Large tears are flowing down Felicia's face as she turns around. "What's wrong?" Jeff walks out of the room just in time to hear Felicia's answer.

"That person… it was Joe."

"**SAY WHAT!"**

"Something's wrong with him and I think it's all my fault." Felicia falls to the floor and cries into her hands. Jeff drops his weapon to the floor and nearly hits the floor himself. "You mean... I nearly killed my own brother?" The wind begins to blow through the new hole as the group looks at each other with no idea on what to do next. A loud roar echoes through out the city as a black figure with a three foot tail following him, dashes across the tops of buildings while jumping over the gaps between them.

(End Episode 10)

* * *

_Trailer for the next episode…_

Jeff: What happened to Joe and where could he have possibly run off to?

Felicia: It's all my fault…

Jeff: Quit blaming yourself and help us find him. Feeling bad for yourself won't find him faster.

Pico: Someone's on the phone!

Jeff: Hello? Where? Okay, I'm on my way. We got a lead, come on!"

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 11: Feline Infection**

Felicia: Is that you Joe?

Joe: Felicia… I now know how it feels to be feared for the way I look.

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**Author Note: **Whoo! Ten chapters and still going! I'm glad to see that other people have begun to add more to their stories. (looks at the one's who haven't been updated or added anything new in a long time) We want more Darkstalker fanfiction and we want it NOW! The rest of us are pulling our own so get off your lazy butts! 


	11. Feline Infection

**Author Note:** I think Ihave appeased the Jon fans with the fight between Jon, Joe, and Gallon. Now for a quick twist and a huge change in store for the future of my fan created character Joe. Just because there are comics/mangas that seem to make Felicia & Jon a couple doesn't mean I will accept it as fact!

* * *

_**Episode 11: Feline Infection**_

Three days have passed since Joe's disappearance on the night after his battle with Jon against Gallon. Jeff has done his best to try and locate his missing sibling only to come up empty handed. Felicia and her friends have only gone out at night to search for Joe in order not to raise any concern with the citizens in the city. So far there haven't been any clues and Joe has not contacted them since his sudden departure. In an attempt to find the reason behind Joe's strange behavior, Jeff asked for a sample of Felicia's blood to conduct some tests. However, his results have been less than successful and Jeff has nearly given up.

_What could have caused Joe to act so strange? For the last three nights, Felicia and the others have tried to get me to believe that there is another cat person in the city. But I have not been able to locate this new arrival and there are no reports of an unknown creature seen running wild in the city. If there is something out there… I sure can't find it._

Jeff spins around in his chair at and picks up a pile of freshly printed test results. The clock reads eleven at night as Jeff looks over the results. _Again, everything has come up negative. There has to be something in Felicia's blood that has caused Joe's change… but what?_ Jeff goes to put the paper in the shredder and accidentally gives himself a small paper cut. A small drop of blood exits the cut and falls onto the uncovered slide containing Felicia's blood sample. _Great, I just corrupted the sample and now I have to go get a new one. Felicia REALLY doesn't like needles…_ Just as Jeff goes to destroy the slide, the scanner begins to print off strange results. He reads the results and cannot believe what he is reading. Jeff takes the slide and gets a closer look by placing the slide underneath a microscope. _So that's the reason behind Joe's change._

Ten minutes later, Jeff has gathered everyone in the makeshift lab to give them his findings. "According to my tests, it seems that Joe has been infected by the mixture of Felicia's saliva with his blood. Lucky for him the infection isn't fatal but…" Felicia looks up from the floor and listens to the rest of Jeff's results. "…if we don't find him soon the change may become permanent."

"What is he becoming?"

"Right now I'm not sure. But the mixture of his blood and Darkstalker DNA seems to have created a hybrid virus within his system. In short, he's becoming a cat person just like you." Lucy laughs at Jeff's statement of Joe becoming a male cat person. "He can't become like us. Only someone born from a cat woman can become one and there are no male cat people back on our world." Jeff shakes his head and agrees with Lucy on part of her comment. "True, a normal human can't transform. Remember, Joe has that stone in his body and no one knows what that thing can do. Hell if it can give Joe massive power; maybe it can turn him into a cat person too."

Just then, Felicia picks up the same scent from the night before and looks around the room. Grace finds Felicia frantically looking for something and questions her about it. "Felicia, what is wrong?" A black figure appears at a window and stares into the room with its navy blue eyes. When Felicia approaches the window, the figure dashes off into the darkness. Felicia opens the window and launches herself after the nighttime visitor. The others stare at each other and try to come up with an idea to break their boredom.

Meanwhile, Felicia is running after the blue eyed visitor through the back alleys of the city. The only think Felicia can make out is long silver hair and an equally long tail flowing out from behind her target. _If that's Joe, why is he running from me?_ Suddenly, the target makes a sharp right turn around the corner of a building and vanishes. "Hold on a second Joe!" Felicia turns the same corner and runs over someone in her hurry to catch her target. She stops to appoligize to the poor victim and is nearly shot by someone's gun. "What was that for! I was going to appoligize." In a matter of moments, Felicia is surrounded by group of about fifteen members from one of the local gangs. "Hold it freak. You are gonna pay for hurting our leader." Several members charge Felicia only to be knocked on their ass by her strong cat limbs. "I don't have time to be playing around with you."

Felicia rolls into a ball and takes out more members before punching out the final unharmed member. She looks around and is only able to see the several knocked out gang members lying on the ground through out the alley. _Aww man, I lost his trail…_ The leader tries to sneak up behind the preoccupied Felicia with a baseball bat in hand ready to knock her out. As the leader swings the bat for her head his swing is stopped by something. "Attacking a woman from behind… what kind of man are you?"

Surprised by the arrival of a helping "hand", Felicia turns around to find the silver haired Joe with the addition of two cat ears sprouting out from the top of his head and a long silver tail from the seat of his sweatpants. His normal human shaped body has been replaced with the muscular form of a male cat person. Joe's arms and hands have become furry but his claws are the size of a normal human hand. While most of his body has changed, only the muscles in Joe's legs have increased in size. His feet are still size thirteen and have short but sharp pointed nails growing out from his toes with small patches of silver fur on top of each foot. Cat Joe has blocked the baseball bat by grabbing it with his tail causing the gang leader to freak out. "What the hell are you?"

"I'm the end of you and your gang buddy." With a snap of his tail, Joe throws the bat away and slugs the human in the stomach with his right fist. He connects his right knee to the chin of the human sending him into a wall. Joe dashes at the stunned human and drills an elbow into his chest cracking some ribs. As the human tries to recover from Joe's attacks, Joe picks him up with his left claw and holds him against the wall by the collar of his shirt. "Please, don't kill me." The violent cat guy laughs at the human's request for mercy. "No, people like you don't deserve to live." Joe extends the sharp nails of his right claw and aims them for the human's neck. "See you in hell." The death blow comes within mere inches of the skin above the main artery but doesn't connect. Joe turns his head to find Felicia struggling to keep his right arm away from the human.

"Don't do it Joe! There's no reason to take his life!" Joe's tail wraps around Felicia's waist and picks her off of the ground. "I don't know who you are or how you know my name… but don't interfere with me!" Joe throws Felicia to the ground and turns back to the captured human. "Now… where were we? Oh, now I remember." He sends the claw straight for the neck of the terrified human only to crash his claw into a wall. Seeing his chance to escape, the human kicks Joe in the head and runs out of the alley to save his pathetic life. Joe spots his prey leaving and starts to chase him when his whole body freezes. "What's wrong with me? Why can't I move?" _Cause I won't let you hurt people for no reason!_ "Who are you?"

Felicia stands up to find cat Joe arguing with an unseen person. _Who is he talking to?_ "Joe are you ok?" The cat ears on Joe's head and his tail begins to retract back into his body. _Is he returning back to normal?_ Joe grabs his head and screams loudly. "What are you doing to me! Get out of my head!" _No, you have threatened the life of a human with no justification for your actions. For that, I now seal you into the Chaos Stone!_ Joe's head snaps back as his eyes emit two beams of white light that shoot straight up into the sky and rips two large holes in the dark clouds. When the light finally fades away, Felicia finds Joe has returned back to his "normal" self and the cat features have vanished from his body. A small hole in the back of Joe's pants is the only evidence left from his beastly transformation. She slowly approaches the unmoving human and taps him on the shoulder. "Uh, Joe?"

Joe turns around and looks at Felicia with his kind brown eyes. "What is it Felicia? Whoa!" Felicia nearly knocks Joe over as she wraps her arms around his body and squeezes tight. "Thank God you're ok!" The brown haired human's face starts to turn bright red as Joe tries desperately to breathe. "Felicia… you're crushing me…" The joyous Felicia releases Joe who takes several deep breaths. _I swear, someday she's gonna break my back just giving me a hug._ Joe looks around and finds the once knocked out gang members starting to regain consciousness. "We better leave before they realize we're still here." Joe picks up Felicia and with a quick burst of energy, hurdles the two of them up onto the nearest rooftop. While they are in mid-air Felicia stares at Joe as his short hair blows in the rising air. _I'm glad he's back to normal._

One hour later, the others have gone to sleep while Joe is hooked up to yet another of Jeff's inventions. Jeff is busy punching away at the keyboard to the machine leaving Joe in the dark. "Don't look so worried Joe."

"Why shouldn't I be? Last time, you nearly sent me into the next county when your last "project" blew up."

"That was an accident. This is designed to scan the subject's body for any foreign agents."

"Ok… then answer me this. Is there a reason you had to scan me with just my boxers on?"

"The reason why is because most of your clothes have already been exposed to your power and I can't scan through them for some reason." The scanner beeps and Jeff begins to print off the results. One large sheet after another spills out of the printer and onto the floor. A large sweet drop runs down Joe's head as he watches sheet after sheet hit the floor. "Please tell me you are paying for that paper Jeff." Jeff rips the end of the paper from the printer and quickly reads it over before handing it to Joe. "Looks like the infection has somehow been removed from your system. I think your Chaos Stone was the cure." Joe puts his pants and his blue tank back on and heads for the door. "Hold on for a second Joe."

"Yea? What is it? It's getting late…"

"Joe, I'm not sure if that virus is really gone but I do know that you are possibly the strongest person I know and since high school you have torn through any problem you have ever faced. I'm just saying be careful Joe." Joe gives his brother a thumbs up and smirks. "Hey, you know that I won't be defeated without a fight. Just try to get some sleep alright?" Jeff nods and begins to shut down his computer hyped by salvaged Huitzil technology. "I'm going to sleep now, don't forget that we got a busy day of work tomorrow ok?"

Joe walks out of the room and is ready for bed when his stomach growls loudly. _That's right; I haven't eaten since becoming a cat person. Better take tare of that._ He heads downstairs into the kitchen and scrounges around for something as a midnight meal. After eating most of the food in the fridge, Joe pats his full stomach and walks towards his room. As Joe stands in the middle of the living room he senses that he is not alone. "Whoever is hiding in the darkness come now before I force you out." Joe turns on a nearby lamp to reveal Felicia standing in the living room. "Well, well, well… is Felicia worried about little old me?" Joe's statement catches Felicia off guard. "Here, catch." Joe tosses a can of Coke to Felicia who nearly drops the carbonated drink to the floor. "Wanna go look at the stars?"

Moments later, Joe and Felicia are sitting on the roof of the house looking up at the clear night sky. The stars shine brightly as a cool summer breeze passes by causing Felicia to shiver. Joe takes off his lightweight jacket and puts it over Felicia's bare shoulders. "Guess it's not big enough huh?" Felicia pulls the undersized jacket tight around her and shakes her head in disagreement. "It's the thought that counts right?" Joe scratches the back of his head in embarrassment. "Yea I guess so." Joe opens his drink and notices Felicia is having a hard time opening hers. He sets his drink down and tries to open Felicia's can. "What's wrong with this thing?" The top pops open and Joe is hit with a large spray of soda to his face. Felicia covers her mouth and tries not to laugh at Joe's expense as he wipes the soda from his face. "You think it's funny don't you?" Joe covers the opening to his can with a finger and violently shakes the can. Felicia backs away from the sinister Joe and laughs. "You wouldn't dare."

"Wanna bet?"

Joe moves his finger and sends a spray of soda at Felicia who jumps over the sticky stream. "That's not fair Felicia." Felicia lands on the edge of the roof and smiles. "You're just not fast enough to catch me Joe." As Felicia steps back, she misjudges the distance and slips off of the roof of the two story building. Joe dashes to the end of the roof and follows Felicia off of the roof. As he goes over the edge, Joe notices Felicia hanging onto the drainpipe and pulls herself back up. He looks in front of himself and finds that he is closing in on the ground. _Well, this is gonna suck._ Felicia leans over the edge after hearing a loud thud and finds Joe lying on the ground grabbing his right arm in pain. "Are you hurt Joe?" Joe is a little pissed off at Felicia's comment. "No Felicia, I'm just enjoying the wonderful world of broken bones."

As Felicia helps the injured Joe inside, Dami is busy rampaging his way through the library in Castle Aensland back in the Darkstalker World. Books and other ancient documents litter the stone floor as Dami knocks over shelf after shelf of hard cover books. _Where is it? There should be a book detailing the whereabouts of a weapon of great destructive power in this place. With it, I can conquer both worlds without that damn stone._ Dami blows up a random wall and finds the door to the secret vault containing King Berial's forbidden text. _Well, I guess luck is on my side today._ He grabs the handle and rips the heavy metal door right off of it's hinges. The loud crash of the door dropping to the floor draws the attention of the castle guards and they come rushing into the room. They find the strange yellow eyed human standing in the doorway of the vault with the door torn off.

"Stop! You may not enter that room by orders of Mistress Morrigan."

"It's just a weak human commander. We can kill him easily."

Dami looks at the group of thirty demons armed with swords and laughs. "I would enjoy some exercise, but I have more important things to do." The villain snaps his fingers and a figure wearing a long black cloak appears kneeling at his side. From under the cloak, a woman's voice speaks to Dami. "You summoned me Master?"

"These men would like to "play" with you Helcia. You can do whatever you want to them."

"Thank you Master Dami." The altered version of Joe enters the vault and forces the first row of demons to charge the vault. However, the cloaked woman is standing between the army and the entrance to the vault blocking the way. "Move or we will be forced to kill you as well." The unidentified woman laughs as a solider slashes the hood of the cloak off of the woman revealing a shocking image to the army. "It's Lady…" The soldier is sliced in half has the woman swings a large black claw splattering the demon across the floor. A black furred, pink haired version of Felicia stands in front of the army as fresh blood drips from her left claw. "Let's play my favorite game… "How many survivors will be left?" Feeling lucky?" Her dark violet eyes glow with excitement as Helcia charges the small demon army with her claws fully extended.

Sounds of pain and torment echo through the castle as Dami stops to hear the battle from inside the vault. _Now that's music to my ears. Hmm? _The rest of the castle guards have arrived through a secret entrance into the vault and have now surrounded the glass case containing the "Demon Book". A sinister grim comes across Dami's face as he raises and open hand to the guards. "You got five seconds to attack." The guards charge forward and raise their swords at the overconfident human. They are within striking distance when Dami's countdown reaches zero. A sphere of violet energy exits Dami's body and completely vaporizes the guards from Demon World. _This world is weak. I can't wait to destroy it!"_

Dami approaches the encased book and shatters the glass with a small burst of energy. The broken glass is embedded into the walls by Dami's attack. He reaches for the book only to watch it vanish from his sight. Dami pulls his hand back and the book reappears in the broken case as an unseen voice speaks to him. "Only those of Aensland blood may touch this book. Outsiders are forbidden to read its ancient text." Dami storms out of the vault and crushes a few of the dead demons' skulls under his feet as he exits the vault. Finished "playing" with the guards, Helcia drops a bloodied demon and walks over to her Master. "Is something wrong?" Dami places a hand under her chin and smiles. "No my dear, everything is still under control." The black Felicia yawns and falls into Dami's arms. "Come, you are tired from your first day of life. Time to sleep." The two of them vanish in a burst of black light leaving the bloody scene behind them.

Some time later, Gallon and his new scar arrives in the bloody library and surveys the damage. He walks past the hordes of dead demons, pools of dark blood, and small piles of shattered steel to reach the main vault just to find the book still sitting on its resting place. _So, he couldn't take the book after all. That means…_ Something pulls on the back of Gallon's pant leg and draws his attention. The only survivor to the attack coughs up a load of blood before asking Gallon his question. "Is the book safe?" Gallon pulls his leg away from the dying demon and plows it into the defenseless demon's skull. _These guards are pathetic. They would throw their lives away just to protect some book. Then it must have one hell of a secret if Master couldn't even touch it._

(End Episode 11)

* * *

_Trailer for the next episode…_

Jeff: When will you learn? Bones are NOT made out of steel. They are…

Joe: …made out of glass. I get it Jeff.

Lucy: Hey! What happened to the lights? You better not be trying anything funny…

Jeff: Something is wrong at the power station!

Joe: I'm off!

Felicia: No, I am.

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 12: Big Strength, Huge Heart**

Felicia: You are not doing anything while that arm is broken Joe.

Joe: Yes mom. Ow!

Felicia: And no wise cracks either.

* * *

**Author Note:** Let's see… Dami is one step ahead of the Darkstalkers, the "dark" Felicia has been born, I have made reference to Joe's future weapon, and Joe has a broken arm. If this doesn't get more reviews I don't know what will! Don't worry; I will make sure to explain on how Dami was able to create a "dark" Felicia out of the hair Gallon took from Felicia and the main reason why Lucy seems to have an unquenchable hatred on the entire human race. But first, we need another massive fight scene to kick up the action part of this story.

Man, if this story was used as a plot for a Darkstalker anime series, there would easily be over seven seasons of material here. Here that Pokemon? Darkstalkers would be a longer series than you if one were ever made!


	12. Big Strength, Huge Heart

**Author Note:** Ok, I have heard the people and they want the appearance of more Darkstalkers in this story. This time around I'm bringing a Darkstalker that will make his first appearance since the start of the story. If you haven't guessed to who is coming into play, it's time to find out!

* * *

_**Episode 12: Big Strength, Huge Heart**_

"That should teach you not to jump off of buildings without a parachute." Joe follows Jeff into the house with his arm wrapped in a heavy cast tucked away in a sling. "You enjoyed the part when they forced my shoulder back in its socket, didn't you?"

The two brothers have just returned from the hospital after getting Joe's right arm sealed inside a rock hard cast. Lucky for Joe, his injury wasn't too serious… well, as serious as falling off of a two story building and landing on your arm can get. The cats are still sleeping until Joe slams the front door out of frustration. They sneak their way to the top of the stairs and look down at the crippled human and his brother.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't. But right now you can't go out and fight anyone until that arm heals."

"How long until I'm better again?"

"Hmm. The doc said anywhere between two and six weeks."

"Six weeks! Why so long?"

"You got lucky it was only a minor fracture and not a major break. If you didn't land on it the way you did, you would be forced to stay in the hospital."

_It's gonna be a long six weeks._ Joe notices the three little kits have arrived and are rapidly poking his arm with great curiosity in their eyes. "What is this thing around your arm Jo-Jo?" The continuous poking has just about worn out Joe's last nerve. "Will you please stop? And for the last time… my name is Joe! Not Jo-Jo!" Joe's heightened voice frightens the girls away from him. They duck behind the older cat women in fear of Joe and his anger. The three older women give Joe some seriously pissed off looks as they try to calm the upset girls down. "What did we do to make Joe hates us Felicia?"

"Nothing Pico, he's just angry because he doesn't have reflexes like us." The girls start to feel better after Felicia's comment about Joe's injury. Joe over hears the comment and crosses his left arm over the cast. "What was that supposed to mean?" Felicia turns towards Joe and points an incriminating finger at him. "You shouldn't take out your frustration on them because you have poor skills Joe." Joe laughs and points at Felicia with his unbroken arm. "Last time I checked, I have saved your butt enough times to earn some extra respect."

"Saved me? Those events were just lucky breaks." The spectators to the argument groan at Felicia's last statement. "No pun intended." Joe shrugs his shoulders and flinches in pain. "Hey, I told you not to move the shoulder!"

"Bite me Jeff." Before Joe can say another word everyone is heading for the door. "Where are you guys going?" After letting all the girls out to the car, Jeff stops Felicia and pulls her aside to have a quick word with her. "Hey can you stay here and watch Joe for me?" Felicia can't believe her ears to what Jeff is asking her to do. "Please Felicia? You are the only one I can turn to." She places her hands on her hips and shakes her head. "Why can't you ask someone else to do it?"

"Because, if I have to ask Lucy, they would fight so much and Joe would end up breaking his other arm." Felicia drops her head and sighs. "Fine, I'll watch him."

In a period of three weeks Joe's broken arm has all but destroyed his friendship with Felicia. Even the tiniest thing would set them off into a torrent of critical arguments ending up with both of their feelings hurt or with Joe getting scratched in the face by an angry cat woman. On a dark and rainy midsummer night, the whole house was watching the New York Yankees play the Boston Red Sox in Yankee Stadium on ESPN. The game was entering the bottom of the ninth inning with the Yankees down 9-8 with the bases loaded and a 3-2 count. Time seemed to slow down as the pitcher threw what could be the final pitch of the game when suddenly without warning the power goes out!

"NO! Jeff what happened to the game?" Asks a worried Joe. Jeff walked over to the window and finds that the entire neighborhood has been thrown into an eerie feeling of uncertainly as Jeff scrounges around for a flashlight. "Got it." One of the girls screams loudly as someone hits the floor just as Joe turns on a battery powered lamp. He increases the light and finds Jeff laying on his back with a blushing yet pissed Lucy walking away from him. "Don't reach around in the dark when you can't see and maybe you can go a day without getting punched out." Jeff recovers from Lucy's punch and checks his "Stalker Scanner" for any Darkstalkers in the city limits. The citywide scan is able to detect a high concentration of energy in the immediate area of the power plant. "There's a strong Darkstalker near the power plant and it isn't registered as an ally or an enemy." Joe stands up and grabs his jacket as he heads for the door. Felicia walks by and slams the door shut before Joe can leave the house. "What is your deal Felicia?"

"You can't go out while your arm is still hurt. If it is a Darkstalker, how do you expect to fight?" Joe runs his left hand through his hair and laughs. "I can handle myself. Besides, I still got my left arm don't I?" Felicia drops her head and sighs. "You are so stubborn!"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sensing an imminent confrontation between Joe and Felicia, Jeff steps in and offers a compromise. "How's this? Joe, you drive Felicia to the power plant and Felicia can take care of any Darkstalkers inside. Sound good?"

"Yea."

"I'm fine."

It takes Joe twenty minutes to reach the power plant from the house and is stopped a half mile from the plant by a police road block. The local authorities have taken serious precautions and have set up a perimeter around the plant to prevent the unknown person or persons from escaping. Joe starts to drive down the empty detour and turns down an old dirt road once he is out of the sight of the police. He stops the car a few feet from the main road and turns the car off just as another police car drives by. _That was too close._ Joe reaches into the armrest and pulls out two pairs of headsets. Felicia snatches one pair and sets it over her ears while Joe sets his up. "You could have asked before ripping them out of my hand Felicia."

"Yea well, you're taking forever."

"Knock it off you two."

Jeff's voice enters the headsets just as a hidden monitor pops up from under the dash board showing a crude over view of the area to the two occupants. "Now listen up. There's an old fence about a hundred yards from your location Felicia. The authorities shouldn't know about it but keep alert. Joe, you are to monitor Felicia from the car and update her on any changes in the area. The monitor in front of you was created from the basic format of the Huitzil's scanning program. So finding any moving object should be pretty easy. The only problem is once Felicia enters the plant contact may not be possible due to the high voltage generators. Ok, be careful now." Joe switches the radio off to the house and changes over to Felicia's frequency. "Let's get…going?" Felicia has vanished from the car and is running towards the plant with a large rain coat covering her body from the driving rain. "What is your problem Felicia? You should have waited until the area was deemed safe."

"I don't need you to tell me what's safe and what's not!" Felicia screams into the headset nearly blowing Joe's ear drums out. "I was only trying to help." Felicia reaches the fence and hurdles over it with ease. "Well don't help me. In fact, I'll see what the problem is and handle it myself. Don't even think about coming after me understand?" Felicia's radio goes silent as she enters the fenced off area; Joe moves the microphone from his mouth and drops his car seat back to relax. _If it wasn't for this arm, our friendship wouldn't be in such disarray. Then again…_

Felicia skips over puddles and rotting logs as she heads for the power plant through the dark and rain of night. She reaches the plant and finds a large unnatural hole in the back of the main building where the generators are housed. "Joe can you see this?" A live picture is sent from Felicia's headset to the monitor in Joe's car. "I see it but I don't believe it. Who or what could punch a ten foot hole right through solid concrete?" To Joe's surprise, Felicia walks right into the building using the new entrance. "Hold on Felicia, let me check the area first." The only thing Joe receives is the sound of Felicia's headset dropping to the ground and a nice long look at the outside of the plant. _Great, now that she's taken her headset off so I can't see where she is._

A large black figure begins to approach the prone camera and towers over the tiny device. _Who the hell is that?_ The figure has found the camera and proceeds to stomp down on the fragile headset smashing it to pieces. Joe throws the spare headset onto the backseat and reviews the last few seconds of footage from the doomed camera before its destruction. Even after clearing the image of any glare from a distant lighting bolt, Joe is still only able to get a faint outline of a very familiar muscular individual. _Where have I seen this outline? Could it be?_ Joe whips out the manual to his Darkstalker game for his PSP and flips over to the character pages. _Got it! Now all I have to do is find Felicia before he does._

Meanwhile, Felicia is walking down an unlit hallway using her keen senses of hearing and smell to navigate through the darkness. Her path fork in two separate directions forcing her to make a decision on which path to take. While Felicia makes her decision, Joe has just reached the area of the strange hole and finds the shattered headset half buried in a muddy puddle. Someone with a flashlight is making their way around the corner when Joe ducks into the opening and leans against the wall hoping to remain hidden. The light flashes into the opening and starts to move away. _That's too close for my taste. I gotta find Felicia and get both of us out of here._ Joe pulls out his key chain flashlight and runs headlong into a wall. As Joe grabs his nose to stop the bleeding, he looks around at his surroundings. _Ok, now I'm going to be careful._

While Joe begins his search for Felicia, he has no idea that she is using the ventilation system as a direct path to reach the generator room. She spots several flashes of light coming from the end of a side duct and heads towards it. From behind an open vent Felicia can see a covered table with several large wires going from an active generator to something under the cloth. _What's going on in here?_ As Felicia backs away the metal under her body begins to give out and she falls into the room crashing to the floor. _Oh well, now that I'm in here I better get a look around._

After searching the entire room for an exit Felicia sits down next to the covered table to rest and takes her soaked rain coat off of her body. _I can't believe there's no way out of this place. If Joe was here he could have… no! I can do this on my own without his help._ Felicia's curiosity gets the best of her and she looks under the cloth. A young girl with light brown hair wearing nothing on her body is the object hooked up to the powerful generator. Sparks of electricity are emitted from the girl's neck when the generator spits out a large amount of high voltage energy and feeds it to the girl. _Who is she?_

"Her name is Emily." Felicia turns around and finds a large figure walking towards her. She takes a ready position and prepares to fight when she recognizes a familiar scent in the air. "Is that you Victor?" The eight foot juggernaut steps out of the shadows and towers over the cat woman. He walks right past Felicia and covers the girl's face with the white sheet. "You should not have entered this room. Now I must end your life." The Frankenstein copycat fires off a bolt of lighting at Felicia who jumps onto a nearby wall to avoid the attack. Felicia slides down the wall and tries to make some sense out of Victor's actions. "Why are you attacking me?" The stitched fighter starts to close in on Felicia. "I can't allow any one to take Emily away from me. The doctor said some bad people are going to take her away from Victor, you must be one of them!"

Victor charges at Felicia throws a hard right punch at her. Felicia ducks under the punch and counters with a hard double claw swipe into Victor's chest. While Victor is stunned Felicia performs her **"Dancing Flash"** and sends Victor crashing past the table and into the far wall. "There's no reason for us to fight Victor." The stone faced Victor rises up and spreads his arms out to reach two large generators on both sides of him. "I will protect by sister from bad people!" Victor's body begins to absorb vast amounts of electricity from the two generators and reaches his limit. Sparks wildly shoot off from Victor's body and lights up the entire room as Felicia prepares for round two.

The fully charged Victor jumps over Felicia and attempts to stomp on her. Felicia jumps away and lands a safe distance from Victor only to be hit with a shockwave of stored electricity. Dazed from the after effects of the shockwave, Felicia falls to a knee to recover from her "shocking" revelation. _I forgot that he speeds up when he uses his electric attacks._ Victor close in allowing Felicia a chance to strike, she jumps on Victor's chest and begins to claw at his face. The claw swipes don't have any effect on the charged Victor and he swings his left leg and boots Felicia into the air. The tossed Felicia crashes into the ceiling and begins to make her decent when Victor appears above her. He drops his right arm like an axe and slams the already falling cat woman into the floor. The floor under Felicia's injured body is cracked from her hastened landing. She tries to reach her feet but is captured by both of Victor's hands and he holds her above his head. "Let me go!" Felicia struggles to escape from Victor's grip and fails.

Victor answers Felicia by discharging a series of high voltage shocks into her half naked body. As the electricity courses through her body, Felicia lets out a loud scream which echoes through the room. The fried cat woman passes out from the intense shock and is dropped to the floor by Victor. He looks at his motionless opponent and raises his size sixteen boot over her head. "I must obey the doctor." A beam of white energy smashes through a wall and explodes into Victor's head stopping him from delivering the final blow. The surprise attack knocks the thunder giant backwards into another generator.

"**Chaos Breaker!"**

The same wall where the beam came out of now has a new doorway thanks to Joe. He locates Felicia laying face down on the floor and rushes to her side. Joe drags the unresponsive Felicia to the wall and checks for a pulse. _Good, she's still alive. I made it just in time._ Victor stands up from the broken generator and finds the silver haired human next to the fallen cat woman. "Emily? Will you awake up now?" Joe turns around and finds Victor standing over the table holding his sister's lifeless body in his massive hands. _Victor must be trying to revive her using the generators. That would explain the power outages._ After making sure Felicia is in stable condition, he leaves her and walks over to the silent giant. "Hey, are you al…"

Seeing the silver haired human beside him, Victor swings his massive left arm at Joe and smashes it into his chest. The unaware Joe makes several out of control spins in the air and ends up leaving his upside down body print on the wall. Joe lands on the ground and spits out a blood filled blob from his mouth; he rises to his feet and wipes the small trickle of blood from the side of his mouth with his uninjured arm. "I can understand you're reason to protect your sister Victor. But there is no reason to attack someone who wants to help!" Joe charges a **"Chaos Shot"** with his open left hand and aims it at the area around Victor's heart. "Last chance Victor. Just walk away or I will fire." The ungentle giant walks slowly towards Joe who falls down and sits with his back against the wall. His footsteps sound like incoming thunder as Joe prepares to carry out his threat. Joe closes his left hand and fires out a thin blue beam which explodes on contact with Victor's ripped body causing a cloud of smoke to surround the large target. "I'm sorry Victor."

With only one functioning arm, it takes Joe a few minutes to successfully get to his feet. _Damn, most of my energy is still being used to heal my arm. I wonder why my Chaos Stone hasn't kicked in to speed the recovery time._ Joe wanders over to the recovering Felicia and looks down at her. "Everything is under control now." Felicia opens her eyes and finds the silver haired Joe standing over her holding out a hand to help her up. She growls and slaps Joe's hand away from her. "Why do you always have to help me? I can handle myself just fine without your help!" Felicia's harsh words strike at Joe's heart harder than any attack ever could. "Do you really mean that Felicia?" Joe's hair suddenly cuts short and returns back to its original brown color. He opens his brown eyes and faces away from Felicia. "If you can't stand me or my help anymore I'm sure Jeff can make something to send you home.

As Joe walks for the exit he is grabbed by the back of the head by a large hand and hoisted off of his feet. Victor appears from the smoke cloud unharmed from Joe's last attack. He tightens his grip on Joe's head applying a deadly amount of pressure on his victim's skull. Felicia is unable to assist Joe because her body is still feeling the after effect from Victor's electric grip. Blood begins to flow from Joe's mouth as the pressure becomes too unbearable for his body to handle. Joe grabs Victor's wrist and tries to force his head free only to cause himself more pain. Victor then takes the torture session one more step further by discharging a burst of ten thousand volts directly into Joe's skull. The close range lighting strike causes Victor to lose his grip on Joe but the attack sends the stunned human crashing through a reinforced safety wall designed to prevent excess electricity from the generators that would normally phase through ordinary walls and harm the workers in the main building.

Felicia watches in horror as the entire wall comes down on top of Joe's body burying him in a large pile of stone slabs and steel beams. A grim silence falls over the room as the dust settles down and Felicia's body finally recovers from the effect of Victor's attack. She tries to get to Joe only to run into Victor who tries to crush her with a large steel beam. _I can't reach him._ Victor throws the beam and Felicia who hurdles over the beam with ease. As she lands on the ground Victor slams both of his fists into the ground launching another shockwave at her. This time Felicia uses her tail as a lighting rod and is able to avoid most of the shock but the small amount of electricity that hits her is still enough to cut her reaction time in half. As the still electrified Victor closes in for the kill, Felicia's ears begin to twitch. _What the? I can hear a heartbeat._

The ground of the power plant begins to shake violently as Felicia spots small pieces of debris on Joe's body are raising upward. Suddenly the mass of debris is destroyed by a flash of light and the silver haired Joe walks out from where the debris once covered his body. "Ready for round two?" Joe opens his eyes which have now dyed into the demonic blood red color. Victor turns his attention away from Felicia and back to the returned Joe. "You may have changed the color of your eyes but you are still a weak human." Joe chuckles and tears off the sling from around his shoulder. He drops the plastered arm behind his back and charges at Victor. "If you think I'm weak, then you have already lost this fight!"

Joe's cast explodes into pieces revealing the fact that his entire right arm is now surrounded in a mass of swirling energy. Felicia gets out of the way as Joe jumps into the air above Victor. "Let's see you handle the **"Chaos Breaker"** when it's given an extra boost!" Joe spring boards off of the ceiling and uses his aura like rocket propellant to bomb dive the juggernaut with all of his power centered in his fist. Victor jumps up at Joe and throws an uppercut with the rest of his stored energy gathered in his massive fist. The two attacks collide in mid-air setting off a massive explosion which blankets the two fighters. Outside, the police are baffled when a large explosion coming from the generator room blows out all of the windows of the power plant. The authorities rush into the building with weapons drawn as they investigate the source of the explosion.

Back inside the building the two powerful fighters are standing in the middle of the heavily damaged room. The worst part is that the ceiling has been blown away allowing the rain to fall onto the two exhausted warriors. Joe's red eyes pierce through the falling rain and finds Victor standing a short distance from him. The electric giant tries to gather more power and fails due to the fact that the generators are too damaged to produce any more electricity. Joe runs up to Victor and drives a hard right hook into his face knocking the giant backwards. He jumps up and plants three back-to-back kicks directly to the back of Victor's head causing the stitched Darkstalker to stumble forward. Confused about Victor's sudden stop, Joe does a back flip over Victor's head and stands in front of him with his arms crossed. "What's the matter big boy? You thinking about giving up?" Victor falls down to a knee and looks up at Joe with a distressed look on his face. _It looks like he's ready to cry. But can he?_ "Please destroy me."

"What are you talking about!" Victor stands up and spreads his large arms open to his side. "I want you to end my life so I can be with Emily. If I can't be with her in life, then we shall meet in death." Joe closes his eyes and powers down to his normal form; he walks over to the humble giant and looks up at the super-sized Victor. "I can't do that. You have a good heart and I will not end the life of someone whom I believe to have a good heart." Victor scratches his head in confusion to Joe's comment. Joe finds Felicia standing over Emily's lifeless body still covered with the white sheet. _I may have a destructive force in me, but it can also be used to help as well as destroy._

After a quick transformation, Joe stands over Emily with both hands extended over her and emits a small wave of energy into the body. _That should do it._ Joe smiles as Emily opens her eyes and finds her big brother standing over her. "Victor? Where am I?" Victor holds out his hands and picks up his reanimated sister. "Thank you for helping Emily." Suddenly, like a bad itch, the police arrive and aim their weapons at the four strange creatures. The police chief grabs a megaphone and speaks to the group from behind his men. "Freeze! You are all under arrest for destroying the power station." Felicia gives Joe a nervous look. "Now what?" The silver human steps out of the group and separates the humans from the Darkstalkers. "Felicia, I want you to take Victor and Emily out the back entrance. I'll follow right behind you." Felicia nods and grabs the other two Darkstalkers on her way out.

However, the chief spots the escaping suspects and issues one final warning. "Stop or we'll fire!" A small bullet shaped energy ball pierces through the battery of the megaphone rendering it useless. The chief looks up and finds Joe pointing him right index finger at him with another shot already on standby. "I can easily take all of you out with this one shot… but that's not my style." Joe points the shot at the ground and prepares to fire. "Later." The energy bullet explodes into the ground and creates a large dark dust cloud which blankets the area. Each one of the police officers fire off a couple of rounds into the cloud hoping to hit the silver haired suspect until the chief orders them to hold their fire before someone is hit by friendly fire. Once the cloud breaks apart, the authorities find a bullet riddled wall but no body.

Some time later… Felicia is sitting in the car waiting impatiently for Joe to return. _Where is he? Joe said he would be right behind me._ Something lands on the hood of the car which causes Felicia to jump in her seat. The object turns out to be Joe sitting on the hood of his car. "What's up Felicia?" Joe opens the driver side of the vehicle and sits down in his seat. "Did I miss anything?" Felicia turns her head and gives Joe a piece of her mind. "You said you would be right behind me! What if you got caught or hurt?" A large sweat drop rolls down the back of Joe's head as Felicia moves closer to him. The only thing separating them is a mere six inches. "Relax Felicia." Joe puts a hand on her head between her cat ears and laughs. "You worried about me that much?" Felicia's face turns bright red as she sits back in her seat. Joe starts the car and makes one final comment to himself before driving off. _Note to self, Felicia cares about me._ The car pulls back onto the main road and heads for home as the cloud filled sky begins to clear up. "Where did Victor go?"

"They walked off into the woods without saying anything."

_Well, that's another Darkstalker I can take add to my list of allies. _

Somewhere in the deepest reaches of space, scientists on Joe's world watch with great concern as a comet approaches the small blue planet with great speed. At the same time as this strange event happens, several reports of strange creatures have been reported to the major news networks. The reports range from deadly robots to unseen murderers that attack from the shadows. Jeff watches as the reports scroll across the bottom of the TV screen and takes note of each one on a small note book. _There are nearly two dozen reports of Darkstalkers attacking humans. Joe's hands are going to be full for a while._

(End Episode 12)

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_Trailer for the next episode…_

Jeff: Ok, I have updated my scanner thanks to your knowledge of Darkstalkers Joe. Now we can locate and identify any of them within a fifty mile radius of the city.

Joe: How long before you can scan the whole planet?

Jeff: For that to happen I need a functioning Huitzil so I can see how their systems work. By the way, where is Felicia and our dinner?

Joe: Don't know.

Pico: Jo-Jo! Someone left this note for you.

Joe: Looks like someone wants a private meeting with the "Silver Stalker" and my name is Jo-Jo…I mean… D'OH!"

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 13: A Warrior's Challenge**

Bishamon: You are the powerful warrior whose blood is driving my sword crazy to hunt you down?

Joe: And you must be the one who has threatened my friend just to lure me out for a fight huh? Well then I can't disappoint a loyal fan can I? Let's go!

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**Author Note:** Time for the only blood hungry Digimon to appear and enjoy himself. (sweats) I need to work on my material for these notes. Because I think my jokes are getting really bad. Oh well, just leave your comments, questions, or concerns on the review page. Also, my computer has crapped out on me and will be in the shop for two weeks! So just try to hang on until then ok?Later! 


	13. A Warrior’s Challenge

**Author Note:** Whoo! Let's keep reading this story people; we're getting close to a thousand hits and maybe fifty reviews by the time college football starts! (Update) Just found out I got over a thousand hits! Thanks and keep reading.

**Disclaimer: **I do NOT own Darkstalkers in any way. However, if I did, I would make sure that the Felicia/Jon pairing was erased from existence. (sigh) Why Capcom? Did you have to pair Felicia with Jon? Damn, even I could have come up with a better pairing. (clams down before he blows a vein) Maybe this installment will clam my nerves. (yea right!) So don't SUE!

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Episode 13: A Warrior's Challenge

The clock above the counter reads eight-thirty as Joe sweeps the floor while Jeff counts up the money from a hard day of feeding the masses at their restaurant. Jeff comes out of the back room and tosses a bundle of money at Joe who catches it and counts it. "We had such a great day I put a little extra in your cut." Joe stuffs the wad of money in his pocket and puts the broom in the closet just as Felicia walks in wearing a large hooded trench coat. "Hey, can I do you guys a favor?" The two brothers look at each other as Felicia makes her request. "Can I decide on dinner tonight?" Jeff nudges Joe in the arm and motions his to give her permission. "Fine Felicia. You can decide on dinner tonight." Before Joe can reach for his wallet, Felicia's tail grabs the bundle of money out of his pocket and smiles. "This should be enough. Thanks." Felicia walks out of the door leaving Joe speechless and broke. "So…" Joe punches his perverted brother in the arm just as he figures out the rest of his sentence. "Not a word."

A half hour later, Felicia has used Joe's money to buy enough fish to feed a small army of humans or in this case six cat women and two humans. She decides to take a shortcut by jumping over the next door neighbor's house and walks up to the back door. Suddenly, someone grabs Felicia causing her to drop her bags and spill all of the contents onto the back porch. The frightened cat woman claws at her attacker's arm only to fail at freeing herself. Her unseen attacker presses down hard on a pressure point on her neck causing Felicia to collapse to the ground. The attacker picks up the passed out cat woman and walks into the night.

Meanwhile, Jeff and the cat women have become impatient with Felicia's late arrival. Joe is leaning against a wall with his eyes closed waiting for Felicia to arrive with the food. He looks up at the clock and realizes how long his friend has been gone. _Maybe she is just taking her time coming home. But, the store is only five minutes from the house…_ Joe's hair for a moment flashes silver just as someone rings the doorbell at the back door. Thinking its Felicia arriving with the food, the three kits run to see who would be the first one to answer the door. But Joe has other ideas to who has rung the bell. "Don't go near the door!"

The three girls stop a few feet from the door just as a dagger smashes through the small window on the door. It flies past everyone and ends up sticking to the wall only three inches from Joe's head. He pulls the dagger out of the wall and looks over the weapon as the others want an explanation. A secret compartment opens up from the handle of the dagger and a piece of paper falls out. Joe unrolls the paper and finds it is written inJapanese. "Can anyone read this?" Nana raises her hand and Joe hands the paper over to her. "It says…"

_I challenge the warrior who is strong enough to battle the Dark and be able to turn one of them into his slave to a duel. If you do not arrive at the location I have picked by midnight, I will kill your woman. Come alone._

"Other than the location, this note is nameless." While the others try to make sense of the note, Joe walks into his brother's room unnoticed and grabs what looks like an inactive light saber. He walks out of the room and finds the younger catscrying. "Felicia is in troubleGrace! We have to find her."

"Don't worry, I'm sure we can find her and help her."

"Sorry guys but this isn't going to be a "we" mission." The cats turn and look at Joe with confused looks. "You heard what the note said, I have to go alone." Joe heads for the front door and is cut off by Lucy. Grace is trying her best to calm the emotional girls while Lucy gives Joe a piece of her mind. "What makes you think we would let you go alone to help Felicia and why does it say "your woman"? Maybe this is some plan to take her away that you two humans thought up." The human walks right past Lucy and to the door drawing more anger from the cat woman. "That's it!"

Lucy turns around and swings a powerful kick for the back of Joe's head. Sensing the incoming attack, Joe falls to the floor and kicks Lucy's other foot out from under her body causng Lucy to fall backwards and land on her head. Joe turns away from the defeated Lucy and walks out the door. The others keep their distance as Lucy tries to recover from her failed attack on Joe. "Ugh, what just happened? How was he able to block me without looking?" Jeff throws Lucy an ice pack for her head and sits down to explain the sudden in his brother's behavior. The explanation echoes through the air as Joe walks down a dark street towards the site of his midnight duel.

"When Joe is focused on something, he will strive to complete whatever his mind is set on until he completes his objective. Nothing will be able to stop him." Lucy stands up and holds the ice pack against her head. "What could have caused him to become so die hard?" Jeff looks over at a family photo hanging on the wall. "I think it was when our grandfather died. Since then Joe's attitude and abilities have become sharper and even if the odds are against him, Joe will never give up." Jeff's description of his elder brother gives the others a small look into Joe's unpredictable mind.

Somewhere in a deserted part of the city an unconscious Felicia is just waking up. She finds herself kneeling down on a jagged wooden board with her arm and legs tied behind her body. Felicia struggles to escape but is unable to break free of her restraints. "You won't be able to break my "Soul Chains" with your pathetic strength woman." _I know that voice!_ A tall, thin monk walks out of the shadows with a staff and a large round hat on his head. "Oboro! Why have you taken me against my will?" The monk removes his hat showing Felicia is dark red eyes. "I have heard of a fighter who may be able to break the cursed armor's hold from my body." Oboro looks up at the new moon and drops his cane. "Please forgive me for what I am about to do."

The kind hearted monk's body is engulfed by a flash of light as several pieces of armor cover his body. When the light fades the blood thirsty samurai Bishamon is standing in Oboro's place staring at the defenseless Felicia. "So, the warrior has not arrived?" The armored Darkstalker draws his sword and points it at the chained Felicia. "I believe your blood is mine since the warrior has not appeared to face me. I'll make your death as painful as possible!" Bishamon charges forward with his sword out in front of his body ready to strike down Felicia when a beam of energy cuts him off causes him to break off his attack. "Who dares to interfere with my blood harvest?"

"You will not get a drop of blood from that girl Bishamon."

"Joe?"

The silver human walks confidently towards the murderous Bishamon as his hair is illuminated by the moonlight. He fires another burst of energy at Bishamon to drive him away from Felicia then steps between the two of them. "Did he hurt you Felicia?" The cat woman looks up and shakes her head. "No, thanks to you." Joe reaches into his right pocket and pulls out the device he took from Jeff's room. "Hold still for a second Felicia." Joe swings his arm and a flash of light surrounds Felicia, the light fades and Felicia's chains have been removed. Bishamon looks on with great wonder as Joe helps Felicia to her feet. _This is the one! He is the strongest human I have ever faced and I must bathe my sword in his blood!_

"Felicia, leave before things get rough." Felicia protests leaving Joe alone with the deadly Bishamon. "I'm not going." Joe senses another attack and defends Bishamon's sneak attack with the "borrowed" device. A beam of green energy comes out of the top of the device taking the form of a blade and blocks Bishamon's demon sword from striking him. "What sorcery is this? You own a demon sword as well?" Joe forces Bishamon back and takes an offensive stance. "I don't need magic when I got a brother who can make kick ass weapons like this!" Felicia dashes home to get assistance for Joe while the two fighters' swords trade slashes and cuts at lighting fast speeds. _Joe's good, but he just doesn't have the skill needed to fight on Bishamon's level yet._

An out of breath Felicia reaches the house after a hard run and barges through the back door without knocking. "Guys we have to go help… you ok Jeff?" The door swung open and cracked Jeff right in the head dropping him to the ground and leaving a large bump on his forehead. Lucy falls over laughing as Jeff groans in pain. "Hey, I can take you on Lucy."

"Anytime, anywhere human!" Sparks fly between Lucy and Jeff as they stare at each other, the standoff would have gone on forever if Grace didn't interrupt them. "Uh, isn't Joe fighting to the death right now?" Felicia quickly explains on how Bishamon kidnapped her and about the weapon Joe is using to duel Bishamon with. Jeff runs into his room and comes back with an incomplete version of Joe's weapon in hand. "That looks like the same one he's using!"

"Dammit Joe! Why do you have to be so stupid?" Jeff turns the weapon over and points out a small dial on the bottom of Jeff's beam saber. "How much did he turn this dial Felicia?" Felicia cannot remember how much Joe turned the dial. "This isn't good. If Joe turns the dial past ten, the saber will overload and explode!" Jeff throws on his shoes and grabs his car keys. "We have to find him now!" Jeff's scanner makes a quick sweep of the city and picks up nothing. "I can't find them. Felicia where is the duel?" Felicia scratches her head in an attempt to remember where they were. "I remember smelling something metallic… before Joe arrived." Jeff grabs his jacket and heads for the back door. _There's only one place they're at and that's the warehouse district by the canal!_

Grace and the young girls jump into Jeff's car while Lucy and Felicia run ahead of them as they hurry to get to Joe. While backup is on route to his location, Joe is having a hard time trying to keep up with Bishamon's movements. Joe is barely able to dodge his opponent's simple attacks while trying to defend against his more powerful cuts with Jeff's sword. Bishamon charges in for a forward thrust allowing Joe enough time to jump up and drop kick him in the head. Joe's kick forces the sword-wielding Darkstalker to back off and regroup. "Not bad human…" Bishamon jumps high into the air away from the human and creates two small will-o-wisps from his armor. "…let's see how you handle this!" The two small fire balls come crashing down towards Joe once Bishamon points his blade at the human as if ordering the fire to attack, Joe jumps over the attack only to come face to face with his deadly opponent. "Too slow."

Joe tries to move away from Bishamon but is slashed by his razor sharp sword in the left shoulder. A large amount of blood sprays through the air as the close range slash drops Joe to the ground and he lands flat on his chest. Contact with the ground causes Joe to lose his grip on his beam saber, he watches helplessly as the sword deactivates and rolls away from him. As Joe reaches for the weapon with his right arm, Bishamon appears and steps down hard on his arm. "You put up a good fight human…" Bishamon raises his blood covered sword over his head and laughs. "…but all good things must come to an end!" Joe watches as the sword freezes in mid-air and refuses to deliver the finishing blow. "What have you done to my sword! It refuses to kill you?" Confused, Bishamon lowers the sword and licks some of Joe's blood off of the blade. He coughs and tries to spit out the blood from his mouth. "Your blood is awful! How could a human have such disgusting blood?" Angry with Joe's foul blood, Bishamon stabs Joe's already injured left shoulder and causes Joe to yell out in pain as the blade cuts through skin, muscle, and tendons. "I'll make you suffer for dishonoring my sword with your blood!"

"Suffer this!"

Bishamon turns around and is hit with a super sized beam of energy and is sent crashing through the steel door of a nearby warehouse. Jeff lowers a smoking beam cannon from his shoulder and rests the weapon on the ground on the other side of the canal. _Wow, this "H-Cannon" really packs a wallop without any recoil whatsoever!_ Felicia jumps over the canal from the roof of a building and rushes to Joe's side and slowly helps him to his feet; the sudden shock of being stabbed has knocked Joe back to his normal state. "Felicia… we have to…"

"We aren't doing anything except leaving! You need medical attention right away Joe." The ears of all of the cat women start to twitch as the bloodied Joe is helped by Felicia to the side of the car. Lucy spots something flying towards the back of Felicia's neck from the top of another building. "Felicia look out!" Felicia turns her head and finds Bishamon's sword coming straight at her with out its owner in sight. She watches in horror as the sword is blocked by Joe using his own body as a shield. The sharpened blade finds its way into Joe's right shoulder and splatters the side of the car with his blood. A look of absolute horror comes over Felicia's face as the blood spray just misses her. "Oh God! Joe are you ok?" Joe places his left hand on the handle of the sword to stop the weapon from doing any more damage. "Felicia… back away… I'm going to…" Bishamon appears and laughs at the wounded human. "You are not the opponent I was looking for. Kien, return to my hand so we may finish this unworthy human off!" The sword remain dug into the human until Joe slowly pulls the blood coated weapon out of his shoulder spilling more of his own blood onto the pavement. Felicia backs away from Joe as his blood trickles down both arms in large drops and splashes onto the pavement. "Why won't my blade return?"

"Your sword has found a stronger partner…" Joe's hair explodes to its long silver color as his eyes become as red as the blood dripping off of his body. The blade of the demon sword also turns red as Joe tightens his grip on the weapon. Bishamon looks on as the bleeding Joe continues to walk towards him with his own dark weapon in his side. "Kien, return!" Joe lunges at Bishamon with the sword at his side and is picked off of the ground by a large white hand coming out of the "mouth" of the armor. The chest plate of Bishamon's armor comes to life as it squeezes more blood out of Joe's body. "You dare to use my own partner to defeat me? You are a fool!" Several small chuckles come out from the bloody Joe leaving the living armor confused. "You laugh at your own demise?"

"No. I'm laughing because you are finished." Joe explodes his aura around himself and shatters Bishamon's grip on his body. Bishamon looks up as the hand vanishes to find the red eyed Joe coming down with both hands on his weapon for a strong overhead slash. In a flash of steel and blood, Joe has created a large cut in the chest plate of the armor between the "eyes" of the cursed armor allowing Joe the opening he needed. He throws Kien away from both fighters and picks up the beam saber he barrowed from Jeff. "Your armor is tough, but how can it handle an explosion from inside?" Joe jams the weapon into the cut just as the armor begins to repair the damage and cranks the dial to eleven. "You lost Bishamon." The blood from Joe's wounds has dyed his white shirt a deep shade of red as his energy runs out. _Damn, I spent all of my strength…_ Joe's body returns to normal as he loses consciousness.

The sword returns to its master as the wounded human hits the ground, blood begins to pool around Joe's unmoving body as Bishamon moves in for the kill. "I will never be defeated by a mere human!" Bishamon slashes at the beaten Joe only to miss thanks to another well placed shot from Jeff's shoulder mounted beam cannon this time from behind the blood driven samurai. The blast sends Bishamon, sword and all, over a warehouse into the dark water of the canal. Jeff puts down his weapon back into the trunk and grabs his fallen brother from a pool of his own blood. Joe's breathing has slowed down to near death status as his friends get him into the back seat. "We have to move! The saber will explode any second now!" The car peels out as Jeff floors the vehicle away from the area.

Under water, Bishamon puts his weapon back in its holder attached to the back of the chest plate and sits on the canal floor to meditate. _That human has not defeated me yet. I'll return for his life another day._ The red armor Darkstalker laughs loudly from the bottom of the canal floor as the beam saber goes critical and detonates from within his armor. The resulting explosion destroys several docks and heavily damages the nearby buildings on both sides of the canal. Jeff serves the car tossing his passengers around while dodging flying metal debris from crushing the car like a grape. "So that's how big the explosion is when my saber explodes. Awesome!" Lucy smacks Jeff in the back of his head and yells at him about his overpowered weapon. "That thing nearly killed us and you are happy?" Jeff turns and smiles. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Joe lets out a small groan as he flails around in pain on the back seat, Jeff quickly stopped the car and grabbed the extra first-aid kit from under his beam cannon to try and patch up his brother's wounds. "Damn, you just had to pick a fight with a blood crazed, sword swinging Darkstalker didn't you?" Except for Lucy, everyone holds down the flailing human as Jeff works to slow his brother's blood loss.

"That's not funny…"

Jeff stuffs both of Joe's shoulders full of gauze to slow the bleeding and sticks everything together with plenty of duct tape. He jumps back in the driver's seat and heads for the nearest hospital to get Joe more professional help. "Jeff… no hospitals." Joe begins to shiver uncontrollably from the blood lost as Jeff speeds down the street. "Sorry Joe, but you have no choice in the matter. There's a blanket under the seat Felicia, can you put it over him?"

"Sure."

As Felicia stretches the blanket over Joe, Lucy nearly pukes over the amount of kindness to the injured human. "Oh come on, can't you see he only fought to win some affection from you Felicia?" Jeff slams down on the brake nearly giving everyone a serious case of whiplash. "You know he went to save Felicia and that's all! Even if he had those intentions, why are you so against the idea of Felicia becoming more than friends with Joe?" Lucy looks down at the floor and doesn't answer Jeff. _You have no idea how cruel humans can be to us._ A cough from Felicia draws everyone's attention to her. "Uh, can someone help pick Joe off of me?" The duct taped human is laying face down on top of Felicia in an unwanted position.

Once again, the car drive off towards the hospital but this time there are two figures watching the vehicle from a distant location. "That human is as dumb as they get, huh sis? Rushing headlong into a battle he almost lost and losing a lot of blood just to save his "friend"." Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling watch Jeff's car until it leaves their sight. "What's the deal with this silver haired guy sis? Is he a Darkstalker or a human?" Mei-Ling closes her eyes and thinks for a few moments. "He is a human but there's something about him that makes him more dangerous than a Darkstalker."

"What could be more dangerous than a Darkstalker?"

"I don't know." She opens her eyes and finds Hsien-Ko looks around for something. "What's wrong Hsien-Ko?"

"Where's Donovan? He and Anita took off after that strange robot attacked us when we arrived to this city." The two sisters turn around and sigh as they look at their wrecked car that was once operable. Hsien-Ko grabs three daggers from under her sleeve and impales them into the driver's side door. "If I ever see that tin can again, I'll turn him into scrap!"

(End Episode 13)

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_Trailer for the next episode…_

Jeff: Three blood transfusions, six hours in the ER, and this damn bill! Next time, I'm gonna let you die Joe. It's cheaper for a funeral than it is to save your life.

Joe: (sweats) Gee, thanks for the sympathy Jeff.

Jeff: So, who's your roommate?

Joe: No idea, the doctors said the police found him unconscious so they brought him here.

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 14: A Boy and his Robot**

Joe: What is Phobos doing here! It seems to be searching for something or someone…

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**Author Note:** Well, I got the next episode up. (God I hate using public computers...) Ok, this last chapter proves that my OC can be hurt and he bleeds like everyone else. However, if he were to die now the whole point of him being the main hero would be shot out a thirty story window and slammed down on a bed of nails. Don't forget to review! 


	14. A Boy and His Robot

**Author Note:** In my list of my favorite ten robots/mechs, Phobos (the Gold Huitzil) is number five on my list. Tell me you don't love a robot that can transform into a car, a one man (robot) band, and become a weapon of mass destruction with machine guns coming out of nearly every open spot on its body. Plus, Phobos can become a very cheap yet overprotective babysitter. Just don't forget to pay him unless you want a quick and messy renovation of your house!

Update: (9/9/05) This installment is just under the 6,000 words mark. So enjoy the massive chapter and don't forget to post your comments, opinions, etc. as a review.

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_**Episode 14: A Boy and his Robot**_

The severally wounded Joe was immediately admitted into the critical ER unit and prepped for surgery. For six hours the doctors worked as hard as they could to save both of Joe's torn arms, at one point in the surgery even the doctors had doubts if Joe was going to survive the operation let alone the recovery time after the surgery. While the doctors worked on his body, Joe's mind was focused on coming out of this alive. _I can't die like this… it's too pathetic!_

_About two weeks later…_

"Have you seen this bill Joe!" Jeff is reading a five page long bill while Joe sits up in his bed wearing the common hospital gown. All of the clothes Joe was wearing on the night he faced Bishamon were so drenched in blood that they had to be burned in the hospital's furnace. So Jeff brought a bag full of extra clothes for Joe to change into when he gets released tomorrow. "Next time, I'm going to let you die. It's cheaper for a funeral than it is to keep you alive." A large sweat drop streams down the back of Joe's head as Jeff continues to read the large document. "Gee, you're just so kind aren't you Jeff?" The recovering human scratches the back of his furry visitor. "How did you sneak Felicia into the hospital? They don't normally allow animals inside."

"About that, Felicia must have jumped inside the bag when I wasn't looking." The white cat purrs softly from Joe's scratching until Jeff picks it up; then it hisses and scratches his arm leaving three small red streaks in Jeff's left arm. Joe picks up Felicia and stares at the purring animal. "That wasn't nice Felicia." The cat jumps back into the open backpack as Jeff zips the bag shut, he leaves a small opening so that Felicia can breathe. Jeff swings the bag onto his back and gets ready to leave the hospital. "Don't forget that you are being discharged at noon tomorrow Joe."

"I won't forget." Felicia pops her head out of the bag and nyans at Joe. "Don't worry Felicia, I'll be home soon." Jeff shoves the cat back into the bag and suddenly pulls his hand out. Joe spots several tiny teeth marks embedded in his brother's hand and laughs. "She bit me! Your pet just bit me!" Joe slams a fresh pillow into his complaining brother's face from under his back in response to his statement. "She's not my "pet" and the next time you make a comment like that, I'll throw an energy blast at your face instead of a pillow." Jeff walks out of the room just as the doctor's wheel in a patient to be Joe's new roommate, a young boy with brown hair lies motionless on his bed. "Hey doc, who's the kid?"

"This poor child was found lying all alone in the middle of a street in the city. The police just brought him in and are now looking for his parents." Joe looks at the boy's face and recognizes who he is. _I think that's Cecil, which means Phobos should be coming for him._ Joe's ideas of the gold Huitzil becoming Cecil's adoptive father are shattered when he remembers how serious the Huitzil take their missions as the doctors leave the room. _If Phobos sees Cecil unconscious, it might think he was killed and then go on a killing rampage!_

Meanwhile, the gold guardian is busily searing the area for his young master.

**_Location of the Master is still unknown… Continuing search for the Master._**

However, Phobos' search is interrupted when a large ninja throwing star lands in front of him out of thin air. Hsien-Ko lands behind the robot and points an angry finger at the machine. "Hey you! You owe us a car!" Phobos scans his opponent's fighting level and faces away from the female Darkstalker. **"Darkstalker is of zero importance. The Master is number one priority."** Pissed off by the lack of attention from the gold robot, Hsien-Ko decides to charges at it from behind with her large metallic claws raised over her head. "Zero importance huh? I'll show you!" Hsien-Ko is unable to carry out her threat because Phobos has decided to rocket away from the hunter just as she comes within striking distance. "That's not fair you damn machine! Get back here!" _Enough Hsien-Ko._ "But sis!" The yellow talisman on Hsien-Ko's hat detaches and transforms into her sister Mei-Ling in a flash of light. "We cannot give chase because we are unable to fly and screaming at our enemy doesn't help." Hsien-Ko drops her head to the ground and sighs. "I HATE walking."

The next day, Joe and his roommate are standing outside on the curb waiting for their ride to arrive. Yesterday, Joe volunteered to take the child home until a foster home could be provided for Cecil. The child looks up at Joe and questions him. "Why are you taking care of me? I have someone to do that for me." Joe kneels down next to Cecil and places a hand on his shoulder. "I know that. But, you just can't go off on your own until we find Phobos ok?" Cecil's eyes grow large when he hears of Joe's knowledge of his protector. "How do you know about Phobos!" Before Joe can answer, Jeff comes around the corner of the street and honks the horn of his car to get Joe's attention. "I'll explain everything later. Besides, both of us have someone who is a Darkstalker."

Joe hops into the front seat while Cecil gets in back, Jeff notices the extra passenger and questions his brother as he drives them home. "Ok, what's the deal with the kid?" Joe gives Jeff a quick explanation and some background of Cecil's situation as they head home. "What about our "guests" Joe? Won't his "father" attack them?" Joe rubs his eyes out of frustration and explains one more time. "Listen, Cecil has promised me that Phobos will NOT attack unless he is threatened. Plus, Phobos won't harm anyone who is designated as a friend by Cecil." Jeff pulls into the driveway and shuts the car off. "Well, Phobos better not destroy our house. Making up a story to explaining how you were attacked to our parents is one thing. Making up a story to why the house is a smoldering crater is a whole other story!"

The three humans get out of the car and head around the house to the backdoor. Jeff opens up the backdoor with his key and the humans are greeted by a party of six cat people. "Welcome home Joe!" The sudden greeting causes Cecil to jump behind the six foot human out of fear, the cats notice the extra human and question Joe. "Who is this Joe?" Grace asks in fear of their secret being compromised. Felicia jumps out and looks at Cecil. "Now I remember! You're Cecil aren't you?" The young human peeks around Joe's leg and looks up at the smiling Felicia. "And you are the kind cat lady who helped to repair Phobos after his fight with the devil." Lucy butts in and breaks up the reunion between Felicia and Cecil. "Are we gonna eat or is this food just for show?"

That night, after the food and drinks ran out, Joe hangs up the towel he used to clean the dishes and walks into the living room. He finds Felicia placing a warm blanket over Cecil who is sleeping peacefully on the couch. She notices Joe walking in and pushes him back into the kitchen. "So, when is Phobos coming?" Joe looks at his brother's scanner hanging on the wall and finds nothing. "Don't know. Until he arrives, we have to watch Cecil." Felicia looks back at the sleeping Cecil and sighs. "What if Phobos never comes?" Joe is surprised to hear Felicia say something negative. "He'll come. I mean, what's going to stop a two thousand pound robot from finding its master?" Felicia laughs and agrees with Joe. "I guess you're right." She heads for the stairs but is stopped by Joe when she reaches the third step. "Uh, Felicia?"

"What is it Joe?" Felicia stares at Joe with her green eyes and causes Joe to lose his concentration. "It's nothing. I'll see you in the morning."

"Good night Joe."

Joe watches Felicia walk upstairs and into her room, then he kicks himself. _Dammit! What the hell is wrong with me? I had a chance to ask her how she felt about me and I choked! I'm so pathetic…_

The next morning, Joe and Jeff drove Cecil out to the same location where the police found him two days before hoping Phobos would be waiting for his master's return. Unfortunately, there was no sight of the gold robot after an extensive three hour search of the area so they returned home and tried to figure out their next plan of action. As the two brothers tried to come up with another plan Felicia walks into the room and places some drinks down for the tired humans. "How did the search go guys?" The two humans glare at Felicia who gives a half hearted laugh and sighs. "We checked everyplace a seven foot robot could hide out and came up empty." Jeff grumbles as he takes a sip of his coffee. "I even updated the scanner so it could locate Phobos by locking onto its energy signature."

Joe looks around and notices that the other five "guests" are not home. "Hey Felicia, where are the others?" Felicia looks around and shrugs. "I think they went to go and buy some clothes for the young ones." _Why don't they ever ask me to go with them? Just because I haven't mastered the ability to transform into a human doesn't mean I can't!_ The furious Felicia hides her true emotions from the three humans by smiling out her anger.

"Excuse me." Everyone turns to Cecil as he puts down his can of soda on the coffee table. "You don't have to look for Phobos anymore; I can find him on my own." Joe places his cup of coffee down and faces Cecil. "I can't let you go alone. Remember? I told you that I would help you find Phobos and I won't break a promise." Just then, the house phone goes off and Jeff gets up to answer the call. "Hello? WHAT? Ok I'll tell him." Jeff hangs up the phone and heads into the basement without saying anything to the others. His voice comes out of the musty sub-floor as he comes back up the stairs. "Joe turn on CNN now! Phobos is in the city!"

"What?"

Joe grabs the remote from the coffee table and flips through the channels until he reaches the news network. Phobos and a large group of about twenty black Huitzil are fighting above the city while the humans below try to find shelter. _It's Dami's Shadow Huitzil again…_ "There's Phobos! See Cecil… Cecil?" The small child has vanished from the room. "Felicia have you seen Cecil?" The cat woman shakes her head as Jeff comes back up stairs. "He went to go find Phobos didn't he?" On TV, Phobos is hit with several beams of energy by ground forces and is shot down. The gold robot crashes through a building and comes to rest in the middle of a car filled street. Several explosions force the news crew to drop their equipment and run for safety. "We have to move now!"

"All taken care off." Jeff whips out his wristwatch and pushes a button. "Prepare for transport!" Joe and Felicia panic as their bodies begin to vanish. "Jeff do you know what you're doing?"

"Yes. Either my we arrive in the middle of the battle or…" Felicia's tail stands on end as Jeff trails off. "I don't like the sound of that."

"…our bodies become road kill." Joe's heart nearly stops from Jeff's answer. _I REALLY hope for the first one._ "No time like the present! Here goes!" Joe and Felicia close their eyes as they are absorbed by a white light. There is an eerie silence while Joe keeps his eyes closed. "We dead?" The group finds themselves standing in the middle of the battle zone with Jeff picking up broken Huitzil parts. "What? I need some extra parts for my other projects." Joe shakes his head in disbelief and transforms ready to crush some of Dami's re-colored robots. "Just be ready to leave when we're done." He turns to his tag team partner and smiles. "Ready Felicia?"

"Let's get going before Cecil gets hurt." The two fighters run in the direction of the downed robot fighter.

Phobos struggles to remove its thousand pound body from the hole in the road as the black Huitzil begin to close in on the damaged robot. **"System error. Fighting capability has dropped under 50. Condition of Master…"**

"Phobos!" Cecil appears on Phobos' left side and jumps on top of his metal friend. "You're still ok." Phobos removes the small child from his chest plate and stands up to protect his Master. The small human notices a large hole coming from the upper right side of his guardian's body, a shower of sparks rains down from Phobos when it tries to transform. **"Warning! Critical error, attack programs has been damaged. Unable to attack targets."**

"Phobos you're hurt! We have to leave."

"**Unable to accept Master's order. The Master's safety is first priority"** Five black Huitzil aim their beam cannons at the two and prepare to fire at them. Phobos' scanner detects the incoming attack and creates a barrier around his small Master. "What are you doing?" The sparking machine stands in front of the protected Cecil and spreads its arms out. **"This unit will protect the Master until this unit is unable to do so."**

"Phobos!"

The black Huitzil open fire sending ten destructive beams at the already damaged robot. A glowing object lands in front of Phobos and creates a defensive wall around the boy and his robotic partner. The object turns out to be Joe using his own power to protect the kind hearted machine and his Master from a dismal fate. Felicia appears next to Cecil and checks on him. "You ok?" Cecil exits the barrier and stands between Felicia and his large friend. "I won't let you get Phobos!"

"I think it's a little late for that." The gold machine is now laying face down motionless on the cracked pavement. Joe turns around and notices that all of the black Huitzil have stopped firing for some unknown reason. _What the hell is going on? Shouldn't they be attacking me?_ The silver haired human pulls out his cell phone and calls for assistance. "Ok Jeff we got him."

"Get ready; I'm bringing you all back to the house!" The same beam of light that brought Felicia and Joe to the battle ravaged area now sucks up the four targets and vanishes. Joe, Felicia, and a very emotional Cecil reappear in the living room while the damaged Phobos doesn't arrive. Jeff walks into the room and finds Cecil wildly swinging his arms at Joe who holds the kid back with one hand on his head. "Where's Phobos? What did you do to him!" After a few minutes of enduring Cecil's rampage, Joe pushes the kid onto his back and looks down at the sobbing child as Felicia tries to comfort him. "You didn't have to knock him over Joe!" The silver haired human powers down and heads for the stairs. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

"If you want to see Phobos, follow me."

Felicia and Cecil follow the two brothers down the stairs into their basement. They slowly make their way through the darkness until Joe turns on a switch which illuminates the entire basement. Cecil is left speechless as the image of golden companion comes into view. Phobos' arms and legs have been removed from his body as Jeff works to repair the heavily damaged machine with a small blowtorch. He stops working and removes his protective eyewear to see his visitors into his world of metal. "How's Phobos Jeff?"

"His main programming is still intact but his limbs and attack programming have been seriously fried. I need to reprogram his attack features and try to fix his limbs before this one heads into battle again." A large explosion rocks the house to the foundations as the other cats return from their shopping trip. Lucy races down the stairs and finds the group standing around the dismembered Phobos. "There's a massive machine making its way towards the city and it nearly blew it up a few seconds ago!"

Joe runs up stairs to the nearest window to get a view of the attacker. A huge, Gundam-sized black Huitzil rises up from the horizon and marches towards the city leaving a path of crushed trees in it's wake. The others walk up behind Joe as the neighbors run screaming down the street in a mass exodus from the targeted city. _Looks like Dami has called in for the "big" guns._ "Guys, I want all of you to leave the city right away." Felicia grabs Joe by the shoulder just as he opens the back door to head into combat. "What about you?" Joe looks at the floor and then at Felicia. "If I can't stop it, I want all of you to leave before that thing is able to destroy the city." Pico and Alto jump between Joe and Felicia with some encouragement. "We know you can stop it Joe." Nana lands on Joe's shoulders and laughs. "Smash it to pieces!"

"Thanks guys." Joe sets Nana on the ground with her friends and runs out to the backyard. _Alright then, time to fight!_ The encouraged human transforms into his fighting mode and rockets away towards the giant Huitzil. Felicia watches the silver streak fade into the distance before going back inside. _Be careful Joe._ Lucy grabs Felicia and pulls her aside. "You heard him; we have to be ready to leave now."

"I know but, I have this feeling that everything will be okay."

Downstairs, Jeff continues to work on the damaged Phobos ignoring his brother's order to leave the area. Sparks fly everywhere as Jeff uses the blowtorch to open up the gold robot's chest compartment. _I don't get it! Other than the exterior damage, I can't find the reason why this thing won't work._ Pissed, Jeff slams his hand down on the table sending a small shockwave through the inactive Phobos. Suddenly, something clicks from inside the machine activating several small gauges on Jeff's computer. _Now that's better!_ He grabs the wireless keyboard and begins to run a quick diagnostic on Phobos' system.

While Jeff plays Mr. Fixit with Phobos, Joe is flying over the city towards the giant robot. The black machine knocks down several large trees and crushes many cars while making its way into the city. _Let's end this quickly._ Joe raises his aura to accelerate past a hundred miles per hour and selects the center of the chest as the target for his full body attack. Some of the fleeing people stop to watch the silver streak of energy as it closes in on the massive Huitzil. Before Joe can crash into the robot it scans his attack and throws up a barrier of equal strength to negate the high speed attack. Joe smashes head first into the barrier which redirects him to the ground leaving a minivan size hole in the pavement. _Damn, I wasn't expecting that quick of a counter-attack._

The war machine locks onto Joe and performs an extensive scan on the silver haired human. **Data has been received and recorded. Current target contains tremendous amount of raw energy. The target must be exterminated before it reaches maximum power.** Joe jumps out of the hole to brush himself off when a loud whirring sound begins to intensify. He looks up and finds the giant Huitzil charging a beam cannon mounted on top of its head. _Its gong to fire and I'm the target! If that thing fires now, the entire city is history. Time to get desperate. _Joe rockets away into the sky trying to distance himself from the impending attack. _Just a few more yards and then…_

**Cannon charged… firing on current target.** A school bus sized beam of destructive energy launches out from the diamond shaped cannon on top of the black Huitzil and soars towards Joe. The fleeing human turns around to find the beam right on his tail. _I can't believe I'm going to do this but…_ Joe faces the beam and cocks both arms at his sides. _…I don't have a choice._ The beam is so close that his clothes are beginning to burn away from the power of the incoming attack. **"Chaos Explosion"!** A sphere of silver energy resonates from Joe's body and collides with the beam setting off a huge explosion that is seen for miles.

Back at the house, Jeff is still working on Phobos with help from Cecil when Felicia comes running down the stairs. "We have to go help Joe!" Jeff turns away from his busy computer to talk with Felicia. "You know that we can't help him. We would just be in the way." Felicia's ears sag as Jeff gives her the obvious answer. "I know but…" Cecil pulls on Jeff's sleeve trying to get his attention. "What do all those symbols mean?" Jeff's computer screen is littered with strange symbols as the computer prints off a translated version for him to read. _This is incredible! There is a hidden program that has just activated for some reason._ Jeff spins around on his chair and begins to finish the program. _I wonder what it does…_ Curious, Jeff presses the enter key and waits off a reaction._ It just says, Activating "Forbidden Guardian Program". What does that mean?_

Felicia screams as the assorted parts from Phobos, the black Huitzil, and some of Jeff's unfinished ideas begin to fly around the room. "What's going on?" Jeff swings his chair to protect Cecil and the metal fuses with his skin creating a small scab of armor on his body. "The hell is going on around here? Why is this thing fused with my skin?" An unseen voice speaks to Jeff alone as more and more of his body is consumed by metal. _Don't fight it. The legendary program has chosen you to become the newest owner._ "I see. Felicia take Cecil upstairs and don't worry about me."

"But what your body?"

"Just go." Felicia grabs the child and heads upstairs leaving Jeff alone as all of the broken parts form a metal sphere around him. The sphere seals itself and grows quiet. Suddenly, the metal ball begins to crack producing a white cloud of steam from inside. Steam fills the room as the rest of the sphere falls apart and Jeff's voice comes out from the unknown. "Joe, it looks like you just got a partner."

Meanwhile, Joe is busy trying to recover from the use of his "Chaos Explosion" without the protection of his "Chaos Aura". He lands in the middle of a street and falls to a knee. _I feel like crap. Guess I won't be doing that ever again…_ Joe looks up and finds the giant Huitzil charging its beam cannon for a second shot at the drained human. _…that's if I ever get out of this alive._ The diamond shaped cannon begins to emit a faint glow as the weapon reaches the maximum energy limit. _Damn, I still can't move yet._

Suddenly, the area around the beam cannon is struck by a dozen small missiles which crack the armor near the cannon. **Cannon damaged by unknown attacker. Locating new target…** Smoke billows out from the damaged robot's weapon as Joe stands up. _Who could have done that? Those weren't any military issued missiles I have ever seen._ "It's because they are custom made Joe." A suit of armor lands next to the silver human and towers over him. The suit looks like Phobos but with more human like features. The blocky hands of Phobos have broken up and taken the shape of a normal human. Joe looks up at the reshaped Phobos and scratches the back of his head. "Phobos? I thought I heard my brother's voice for a second." The metallic ally looks down at Joe and opens up the front of Phobos' head to reveal Jeff. "You did."

"How the hell did you get inside Phobos?" The giant Huitzil's eyes begin to glow red as it scans the two targets. "I'll explain everything later." Jeff reattaches the face plate and powers up his suit. "Right now we have to crush that thing before it levels the city!" The two brothers rocket towards the extra large Huitzil and slam two hard punches to the chest of their enemy and are shocked to find that their attack hasn't even scratched the surface of the machine. **Both targets possess enormous levels of power… this unit is unable to defeat them without use of main cannon. Preparing for self-destruct and destruction of both targets.**

"Self-Destruct! Jeff?" The armored human performs a quick scan of their large enemy. "This isn't good. That thing's generator is powerful enough to destroy everything within a hundred mile radius!"

"We have to get everyone out of here now!"

"There's no time Joe." Both brothers look down at the robot as it prepares to destroy itself. **Time until self-destruct… 300 seconds.** "We have to do something Jeff; we can't let it destroy everything!" Jeff looks at the monitor inside his helmet and searches for a solution. "Phobos, any ideas?" **_This unit has one feature capable of destroying target. Feature is not recommended._ **"Whatever it is, it's better than just waiting to die. Send the data to me." **200 seconds until self-destruct.** Sweat begins to pour down Joe's face as the machine continues to count down. "Not to rush you Jeff but uh, WE NEED A PLAN!"

"Just shut up and follow me." They land directly underneath the giant bomb and Jeff's armor begins to expand. The armor changes into Phobos' "Final Guardian Beta" form and lies motionless for Jeff's next command. "Ok, here goes. Charging main reactor." The changed Jeff beings to glow as the generator charges for an attack. Joe is left speechless as he watches his brother's new armor aims the main cannons straight up at the underside of the giant robot. **_Warning! This unit is unable to produce enough energy in time to attack._** "You're kidding me! We only got 64 of the amount needed to fire."

**100 seconds until self-destruct. **

"Joe! Leave me and get the girls to safety before this thing goes off!"

"No way! There has to be a way to… generate more power." Joe runs his hands against the back of the transformed armor and gets an idea. "Jeff, can you open the main generator hatch?"

"Why would you want to do that? Unless…"

"You got it. I'm gonna super charge your armor and hopefully give you enough energy to attack!"

"Joe, you have no idea if that will work! It could kill you!" The silver human climbs onto the back of the armor and readies himself. "I'm going to die if that thing goes off anyways." Jeff reluctantly opens up the hatch to the main generator and wraps his hands around the two joysticks inside the metal suit. _I hope you know what you are doing Joe…_ Joe places both hands over the glowing orb of a generator and slowly emits his energy into the core of the generator. "We are at 88 Joe. Just a little more!" However, the suicidal robot has other ideas.

**60 seconds…**

"I'm firing the weapon NOW!" With the weapon only at 88, Jeff squeezes both triggers and launches two huge beams of energy from the stationed Phobos on a direct course for the giant robot. The two beam strike the underside only to be stopped dead by the barrier that stopped Joe's earlier attack. "Damn it! That thing is still able to detect our attack."

**50 seconds until self-destruction…**

Jeff releases the joysticks and sits back inside his armor. The two beams of energy have stopped trying to break through the giant Huitzil's barrier. "It's all over Joe. We failed." A glow of silver light emits through the viewing holes of Jeff's armor which catch his attention. Several small sparks of energy fire off from Joe's body as Phobos' energy gauges exceed the allowed limits and continue to grow higher. _The hell is this? Is this more of Joe's power?_ The giant Huitzil's scanner detects a growing source of energy and ignores it. **This unit will self-destruct in 30 seconds…**

"Jeff, FIRE!"

"Activating the program **"Final Guardian: Gamma"** now!"

Enhanced with Joe's energy, the four cannons unleash all of the stored power in a single continuous beam straight up at the giant robot. The super-sized beam crashes into the barrier and continues to force its way towards the underside of the robot. Even though the beam is unable to penetrate the powerful barrier, the brother's attack has a different plan in store for the suicidal machine. Without warning, the defending black robot is slowly raised off of the ground as Joe takes his hands off of the exposed generator and points both palms over his head. "**Chaos Cannon… **fire!"

Utilizing the last of his energy, Joe sends one last wave of energy at the floating machine. The second attack travels up the middle of the continuous beam and slams into the underside of the giant Huitzil sending the machine soaring into the daytime sky just as the timer reaches the final ten seconds. Before the flying machine can self-destruct, it sends one last message to its own master.

**The target is unable to be controlled… extreme measures are necessary to complete the mission. Self-destruct in 3…2…1…**

The generator of the black Huitzil goes critical deep within the metal body causing the entire machine to be destroyed in a massive explosion of energy. Flaming metal scraps of the destroyed machine rain down on the already damaged section of the city causing some buildings to collapse from heavy structural damage. As the falling scraps approach the two brothers, Jeff raises a dome to protect himself and his passed out brother from certain death. While the dome deflects every falling piece of metal away from the two brothers, Jeff begins to check on his brother with the advanced scanners of his armor.

_It seems that Joe used up all of his energy again… but then why is his body still giving off these strange readings? Are these comatose periods allowing his power to recharge while his body heals itself? No matter what the case is, we have to get him home before the authorities arrive and blame us for the destruction of this area._

Jeff picks up his "sleeping" brother and flies back to the house using the cloud of dust kicked up by the massive explosion as a smokescreen to cover his trail.

Meanwhile, Dami is busily reading the final report sent to him by his destroyed robot in Demitri's castle. "Well, it seems that my robots are unable to handle the job of exterminating that human after all. Guess I'll have to speed things up a little…"

Back in Joe's world, scientists from around the globe have assembled to study a rare sight. Two comets are about to collide with the estimated force of several nuclear blasts and possibly destroy each other. To the dissatisfaction of the scientists, a major malfunction on the Hubble Telescope forces the eager humans to break off their deep space study and try to figure out why their instrument has begun to malfunction after years of faithful service. Meanwhile, the two comets have collided together, smashingto dust while setting off an awe inspiring display of cosmic fireworks. However, the bright light is only a cover while Dami's true purpose is revived. An orange sphere of swirling energy replaces the two destroyed comets and remains stationary as a voice echoes in the cold reaches of space.

_What universe is this? I do not recognize any these planets._ The sphere turns around in a full circle to get a good look at it's surroundings and stops when it spots a small blue sphere in the distance. _Ah, now that planet I remember. _The head of the once destroyed Pyron breaks the surface of the sphere forcing the rest of the sphere to form a complete orange body. He looks at his recreated body and clenches his right hand tightly as he remembers how he was destroyed. _I remember now. Those damn creatures known as "Darkstalkers" are responsible for my unwanted demise. But now that I have returned… they shall be the first to suffer my revenge!_ The enraged Pyron curls back into a sphere and remains completely still in space. _Not yet, I may have returned to take the Earth but my power is not sufficient for my plans. Soon, very soon those fools will learn why you do not cross PYRON!_

Dami waves his hand past his viewing portal closing the window just as Helicia walks into the room. She runs her hand through her violet hair and closes in on the sitting Dami. "Good morning dear. Still trying to kill that human?"

"Yea, but he won't survive my next plan." A puzzled look crosses Helicia's face. "Uh Dami? What happens if Pyron destroys that Earth and that human?" The black haired version of Joe stands up and places a hand under Helicia's chin. "If that happens, I'll let you conquer this world and kill any human scum as you feel like. How does that sound?" The anti-Felicia wraps her black furred arms around Dami and smiles evilly at the idea of killing humans until she is satisfied.

(End Episode 14)

* * *

_Trailer for the next episode…_

Joe: I can't believe that I had to drop football just to fight against Dami!

Felicia: You're doing the best you can Joe.

Joe: Yea you're right Felicia. Hey, wanna go watch the game?

Felicia: I've never seen a football game before…

Joe: Don't worry. I'll explain on the way.

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life...**Episode 15: Battle on the Gridiron**

Joe: Donovan! What are you doing here?

Donovan: You are too dangerous to continue living. Prepare yourself…

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**Author Note:** After a long break I deliver a fresh new installment for your enjoyment! Here's to more reviews and more hits! I'll update again when I get some free time between classes, football, and work. Stay in school or I'll send Jedah to kick your quitting ass! 


	15. Battle on the Gridiron

**Author Note:** To Whom It May Concern, we the fans of the Darkstalkers would like to see something other than collections of the old games. A DS4 would be nice or a full length Darkstalkers Movie would satisfy most of us. Please don't make it a live action like the (shutters) Street Fighter movie. Thanks, signed… (rips the letter to Capcom's CEO into shreds) Like they would ever read a letter like that.

Anyways, here's the next episode and since it's football themed… IT MUST BE FOOTBALL SEASON! Now where's my beer hat?

**Disclaimer:** It's in an older chapter, go find it yourself.

**Reader Advisory:** Perverted situation (within limits of of course…)

* * *

_**Episode 15: Battle on the Gridiron**_

The sound of crashing bodies, the feeling of getting your job done, and the smell of dirty laundry all of these things were important to Joe before his newest responsibly decided to take up most of his time. Against his own wishes Joe has decided not to try out for the varsity team due to his unusual situation of being a hero. Before Joe can make his way out of the athletic building he is stopped by his head coach who immediately asks for an explanation to why he is quitting the team before the season starts.

"Why are you quitting the team one week before camp starts Joe?" Not wanting to look at his coach Joe throws on his sunglasses to avoid answering. "Well?"

"I'm just too busy for football coach." Joe's coach starts to laugh at his out of character answer. "That's funny. What's the real reason why?" Joe drops a large duffle bag from his shoulder and kicks it in front of the coach. "I'm serious. I can't play this year. I'll see you around sometime." The saddened Joe shoves his hands into the pockets of his jacket and slams the metal door behind him on the way out of the building.

_Sorry coach, I can't tell you the real reason why I can't play._

One month later…

Joe is sitting on the windowsill of his room at the camp looking out at the falling leaves. Pico, Alto, and Nana are trying to tackle Jeff as he runs around the back area of the camp with a spare football. _I still can't believe Jeff fused with Phobos and became a whole new fighter. What's more surprising is that Jeff let his fusion partner leave with Cecil last week. Maybe Jeff realized he isn't ready for the responsibility of becoming a hero. _While Joe drowns himself in thought Lucy, Grace, and Felicia peek into his room to check in on him. Felicia opens the door slowly to avoid detection and points at the pondering human.

"See? He's been in this room alone since they brought us up here for the weekend and I'm starting to worry about him." Lucy and Grace back away from the door and shake their heads. "Just leave him alone for a while Felicia. He'll be alright." Felicia goes to close the door but forgets to pull it completely shut. "I can't do that Grace! He's been there for us and I think it's time…"

"It's time for what?" A large sweat drop sprints down the side of Felicia's head as Joe appears behind her. "Hi Joe. I was just talking about you." _I'm sure you were._ "Well, I'll just be going…" Before Felicia can back away from the unplanned encounter, someone shoves her and Joe back into the room and slams the door shut behind them. Lucy's mouth drops to the floor as Grace walks away from the door. "Care to explain yourself?"

"Those two have to get their emotions straight before they do something they'll regret."

Back inside Joe's room…

_Ow, what hit me and who's on top of me?_ Joe looks up and finds a dazed Felicia lying facedown on top of him. As Joe comes to grip with his situation, something warm and soft has taken residence in his right hand. Confused, Joe sits up to get a better view and automatically pulls his hand away from Felicia just as she begins to wake up. "Nyan… what happened?" The blue haired cat woman climbs off of Joe and sits down on the floor across from him to collect her thoughts. "How did I get in your room Joe?"

Joe comes up with a quick explanation while Felicia looks around. "I think someone may have pushed you in here by accident Felicia." Joe lets out a small chuckle as his mind is still locked on the event that happened before Felicia recovered. _Why me? If the other's find out I grabbed Felicia's butt… wait a second. It was just an accident so maybe they'll understand._

Joe imagines himself tied down in a dark room while Felicia cries a torrent of tears in the far corner of the room away from him. "I can't believe you would do something like that Joe! I thought we were friends…" The sobbing Felicia runs off into the darkness as her friends surround the pinned down human. Their eyes have become extremely bright red as they extend their sharpened nails; Lucy is the only one who talks to Joe. "We warned you not to hurt Felicia human. Now you leave us no choice but to…" Joe's horrific thought comes to abrupt end just as the five pissed off cat women plunge their claws into Joe's body. _Crap. What they don't know won't hurt them right? They define the term "overprotective". _The continuous stream of ideas of what Felicia's friends would do to him is interrupted when Felicia taps on his left shoulder with her tail. "I'm getting hungry… can we leave now?"

"Sure Felicia." Joe helps Felicia up and heads for the door. "I think I'm going to have some…" Felicia crashes into the back of Joe. "Uh oh…"

"What's "uh oh" Joe?" Joe turns the doorknob several times and fails to open the door. "Uh, the door's stuck." Felicia bangs on the door several times only to have her calls for assistance fall on deaf ears. The others are busily eating at the kitchen table when Jeff looks up at the ceiling and thinks to himself. _Damn, they must be tearing the whole room apart._

One hour later, the sun is beginning to set on the horizon casting a bright orange sunset on the area. Felicia is currently sitting on Joe's bed waiting for him to open the jammed door. "How much longer until we get out of here Joe?" The brown haired human tightly grabs the door handle and pulls the knob right out of the door opening up a path to freedom. _Not the way I wanted to open the door but it got the job done._ Before Joe can react, Felicia dashes by him and flies towards the kitchen to get something to eat. _That's gratitude for ya…_ Joe walks down the stairs and enters the kitchen only to find Felicia scrounging around in the cupboards looking for something to eat. "Uh, Felicia?"

"Yea?"

"You do know we have plenty of food in the refrigerator right? Why not make something yourself?" Felicia closes a cupboard from above Joe and jumps down from the top of the refrigerator. "My cooking isn't that good."

"Now why would you say something like… that?" Joe takes one look at Felicia's paws and his answer becomes pretty obvious. "How about I make something for you?" Felicia shakes her head in disproval. "Nah, I'll be fine." Suddenly, Joe gets an idea. "Hey Felicia, you want to go with me to see the football game?" The cat woman looks at Joe with a puzzled look on her face. "What's football?" The two looks at each other until Joe realizes his own stupidity. "Sorry, you probably never went to a game before. Now that I think of it, no one would be playing football in your world when everyone is too afraid of the Darkstalkers." Joe walks into a closet and tosses an extra large jacket to Felicia. "What's this for?"

"Well, we're going out aren't we? Besides, it's going to get cold quickly the way I'm traveling." A large invisible question mark hovers over Felicia's head. "What are you talking about?"

"Just wait."

Back in the city, Donovan is standing guard over Anita while she sleeps peacefully on the flat side of his sword at the last known location of the mysterious human with silver hair. Donovan's long cloak covers the sleeping child just as Hsien-Ko and her sister arrive. "There's no sign of that silver haired human Donovan. Could you have been wrong about his next appearance?" The monk stands silent refusing to answer Mei-Ling as Hsien-Ko rips him apart. "Come on! We don't have all day you know. I could find him better myself… if we still had our car that is." Without warning, Donovan opens his right eye which is now glowing bright yellow as a vision enters his mind. "Donovan?" The monk's eye returns to normal as he begins a northern route. "Where are you going?"

"I saw the human flying into this city with one of the Dark Ones in his arms." Donovan's statement leaves the two sisters stupefied as Hsien-Ko leans over to question her sister. "Hey, what's his deal telling us that the human can fly? Only certain Darkstalkers have the ability to fly and that guy was human." Mei-Ling looks at Donovan and disagrees with her sister. "There's something more to that human. He's 'different' from the rest of the human race. The only human we know that has silver hair is that Jon Taliban character before Jedah appeared." Donovan's sword rises off of the ground and floats over to him. "The only reason Donovan is looking for him is because of Anita's condition." Hsien-Ko sticks her arms underneath her garments and latches onto her super-sized claws. "Well, we had better get walking unless we want to get left behind." Mei-Ling fades into a flash of light and attaches herself as a yellow talisman onto Hsien-Ko's hat. "Hey, that's not fair sis! You know I hate walking!"

"This way I can give you extra walking energy and there is no reason for both of us to walk, is there?"

Meanwhile, Joe has touched down on a small isolated hill that overlooks the football field of his college and left Felicia to go get some hot drinks for themselves. So far Joe's team is winning 21-20 with a few minutes left to go but the other team is driving down the field towards the end zone. "I'm back." Joe lands next to Felicia and hands over a cup of hot coffee with some extra cream packets. "I didn't know if you wanted extra cream so I just grabbed some before taking off."

"Thanks." The opposing team smashes their way for a first down just as the two minute warning goes into effect. Felicia uses this timeout to pop a quick question to Joe. "Are you in love with me?" The sudden question about Joe's affection towards Felicia causes him to choke on his coffee. "Huh? W-why would you ask a question like that Felicia?" The cat woman smiles and looks down at the field as Joe wipes a trickle of coffee from his mouth. "No reason. Just wanted to mess with you a little." Felicia pulls Joe's spare jacket tight around her to generate some heat. Joe looks at Felicia as she concentrates on the game below them. _That's new. Since when did Felicia start asking questions like that?_

With only three second left on the clock, the opposing team calls their final timeout and decides to kick a twenty yard field goal to win the game. Joe slides next to Felicia and places his other jacket around her. "If you were cold, you should have told me." Felicia turns her face towards Joe. "You ok Felicia?"

"Huh?"

"Your face is starting to turn red." Joe places a hand on her forehead and frowns. "You don't feel warm to me, are you sure you aren't coming down with something?" Felicia starts to laugh which draws more concern out of Joe. "I'm fine. Just a little cold."

The opposing team gets set to kick the ball while Joe's team readies to block it. The ball is snapped, the hold is good, and the kick is away! _Looks like we lose this one…_ As the ball sails for the goal post something flashes past the ball. In seconds, there is a loud burst and the football lies in scattered pieces all over end zone. The fans on both sides of the field are completely shell shocked as the final seconds tick away. "What just happened?" Suddenly, a large strangely shaped sword impales itself into the middle of the fifty yard line. _That sword belongs to Donovan! But why would he be here? Unless he's looking for me!_

The seven-foot Donovan walks out of the back of an end zone and towards the impaled blade. All of the humans in the stands and on the field is left speechless as they watch Donovan remove the sword with one hand and throws it behind his back. Donovan scans the crowd looking for the silver haired human from his vision earlier in the day. "Come out Dark One." The crowd begins to murmur in response to Donovan's command. After receiving no answer from the peanut galley, Donovan grabs the handle of his sword and aims at one of the light fixtures. "Since you refuse to show yourself, I'll make you!"

Donovan throws his blade at the light pole and watches his sword slice right through the metallic pole. The light flicker wildly as they come crashing to the ground behind the visitor stands. Frightened for their safety, the humans begin to run for their lives. The spinning blade returns to its master hand as he takes aim at a different target. "If you still refuse to appear, these humans are next!"

The blade leaves Donovan's hand and flies right for the back of the fleeing crowd. A young boy trips and falls out of the protective grip of his mother to the surface of the grandstand. He sits up and finds the rotating blade heading straight for him. "NO!" Something arrives in front of the boy and deflects the sword away from him. The blade returns to Donovan like a beaten dog as the transformed Joe stands over the young boy. The boy's father arrives to carry him away. "You ok son?" As the father runs away from Joe with his son, he is able to hear the rescued boy say something. "Why do people say bad things about the silver man? He just saved me." _And that makes this whole thing worthwhile._

Joe jumps over the safety wall and lands on the home sidelines behind in front of the water table. Once he lands on the turf, Joe dashes right for Donovan who is still on the fifty yard line with a charged punch in his left hand. _He's reckless…_ Donovan steps calmly to his right to avoid Joe's attack and turns around to find Joe coming at him again this time with a charged uppercut. _When is he going to learn that the same move doesn't work when your opponent has seen it before?_ Donovan steps back and avoids Joe's uppercut with ease. As Donovan readies himself to attack he is struck in the face by Joe's left hook. The attack knocks the surprised hunter back fifteen yards and draws blood from his lower lip. Joe smiles as Donovan wipes the blood from his mouth but starts to worry when Donovan slams his sword into the ground. "Giving up already Donovan?"

"No Unknown One, I'm calling for assistance."

Suddenly, the ground on both sides of Joe splits open revealing Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling each carrying half of Donovan's "Iron Maiden". The two sisters close in on Joe with the split device and catch him in a squeeze play. Joe raises his arms to block the two halves from closing around him and struggles to keep himself free from the device's hold. "What the hell is this? What are you doing Donovan!"

"You are far more dangerous than the Darkstalkers. You must be sealed away before you can corrupt the humans."

"Donovan, you are making a huge mistake!" Felicia comes running in on all fours from the other side of the field to assist Joe. She gets within ten yards of Joe and is grabbed by Hsien-Ko who appears out of thin air. Hsien-Ko utilizing the full power of her talisman sister, immobilizes Felicia by pinning her arms and legs to the ground with her large claws. "Let me go right now Hsien!"

"Sorry, but Donovan is right. This guy is way too dangerous to let him run around anymore."

Joe spots the pinned Felicia but is unable to help her. _Dammit!_ Joe's arms finally give out and the "Iron Maiden" seals the sliver haired human inside the uncharted depths of Donovan's capture device. The sound of the slamming metal echoes around the football field ricocheting off the nearby seats and buildings. Felicia looks up and finds Donovan approaching the locked device with his sword on his back. "Joe?" Hsien-Ko releases Felicia who immediately rolls into her "Dancing Flash" and sends Hsien-Ko flying into the opposing team's water table. Felicia runs towards the sealed device only to be cut off by a size thirty foot from the sky. "You will not be allowed to release that creature from his prison."

"Please let him out. Joe's not evil… he's just misunderstood."

"And you know him better?" Not wanting to discuss her feelings to Donovan, Felicia's mind freezes. Suddenly, Donovan casts his lighting sword technique and barely misses Felicia. "What are you doing!"

"You're mind has been corrupted by that creature's influence. I must destroy you as well."

"Destroy me? I don't think so!"

Felicia jumps into the air and throws her "Delta-Kick" at Donovan who catches the falling cat woman by her extended leg and slams her to the ground face down. "There is no reason to resist. Just…" Donovan is cut off when Felicia swings an extended claw at his face and scratches out a small cut on his right shoulder. Seeing his own blood, Donovan slams a knee into Felicia's stomach then captures her with his beads. He picks the encircled Felicia off of her feet and sets her above the sealed "Iron Maiden." "If you want to be with that creature so much, I will help you be with him."

_You told me not to get involved Joe, I'm sorry I couldn't help you._ Felicia looks down to find Donovan ready to deliver a deathblow to the immobilized cat woman with his loyal sword, Dhylec. The half-blood Darkstalker launches his sword with every intention of killing his prey. As the sword whirrs through the air towards its target, there is a dull thud and then silence. A look of sheer terror comes over Donovan's face as he spots an arm exiting the sealed "Iron Maiden" preventing his sword from reaching its intended target. _What is this? How could my seal be broken?_

"Your little toys won't work on me Dhampir."

The "Iron Maiden" flashes rapidly and then explodes to pieces. Debris from the destroyed containment device litter the field as the red-eyed Joe appears holding a passed out Felicia in his right arm and Donovan's Dhylec blade in his left hand. Donovan's beads return to him and wrap around his body. "Impossible! How can a Darkstalker be able to hold Dhylec? Unless…" An evil smirk crosses Joe's face as he sets Felicia down. "Took ya long enough to figure out that I'm a human. But that still doesn't change the fact that you tried to kill my friend."

"Humans and Darkstalkers will never coexist in this life. They will continue to battle until one destroys the other." Joe laughs loudly at hearing Donovan's short speech. "How many times have I heard that one? Haven't you figured it out yet?"

"Figure what out?" Joe leans Dhylec on his left shoulder and laughs. "That maybe humans and Darkstalkers exist in the same world for a reason? What if there is a much bigger plan that hasn't been put into action that requires both sides to work together?"

"The only thing that matters to me is that I kill the Dark Ones!"

_Donovan… you're hopeless. _Joe draws the large sword behind his back and readies himself to attack. "Now I'll show you what I can really do!" Joe throws his left arm around his body and flings the sword back at its owner; but Donovan has a plan to counter the attack. "Dhylec, hold!" The whirling blade continues to close in. "Dhylec, I command you to hold!" _This can't be! Dhylec is out of my control…_ Donovan jumps into the air at the forty yard line and watches his sword become impaled at his point of origin.

"Next time, try not to jump so high that it hinders your ability to avoid a mid-air attack!"

"What?"

Donovan looks above him to find Joe bomb diving him with a fully charged "Chaos Breaker" in his right hand. As Joe closes in, Donovan uses his beads to create a shield to negate Joe's attack. "Still not thinking, that move doesn't work on attacks that come from the other side!" Joe proves his point by slamming a hard right kick into the side of Donovan's head. The chaos empowered kick knocks the dazed hunter of the Dark back to the ground where he crashes into the brick safety wall on the home sidelines after leaving behind a three foot path of ripped turf in his wake. Before Donovan can recover from his fall, Joe is still hovering over him but this time both of his hands are glowing with tremendous power. "Still alive? I'll make sure you pay for hurting Felicia. Try this one on for size! **Chaos Cannon!**"

A single swirling beam of chaotic energy is emitted from the palms of Joe's hands and travels down at Donovan who just sighs and looks up at the incoming attack with a dismal fate in mind. _So this is how it ends. Not by a Darkstalker, but by this strange human._ Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling watch in horror as the beam approaches their associate hunter. "Donovan? Donovan!"

"It's all over for the slayer of the Dark."

The beam begins to incinerate some of the turf around the crippled Donovan but is deflected away by another barrier. Joe lands on the ground and looks above Donovan as his aura begins to die down. "It's about time you arrived…" The image of a small girl walks out of the darkened area of the field where Donovan's sword cut down one of the light fixtures. "Leave Donovan alone." Joe raises his hands over his head and smiles. "Ok, I'll leave him alone on one condition."

Sometime later…

_Ugh, nyan my head hurts… huh?_ Felicia wakes up alone on a soft bed with a comfortable multicolored quilt covering her body. White bandages have been wrapped around the top of Felicia's head. _Where am I?_ The door to Felicia's room swings open and Joe comes walking in with a tray of food and aspirin. "Oh, morning Felicia."

"Morning? Aren't we fighting Donovan right now?" Felicia sits up as Joe places the tray down on a dresser and pulls out the morning paper. "No, we're back at the camp. Besides, last night changed the minds of several people."

"What are you talking about?" Joe turns to the local section and points out a single picture. The picture shows a transformed Joe using his left arm as a shield to block the spinning Dhylec from striking the young boy. Joe reads Felicia the caption under the picture. "A reporter covering last night's football game took a picture just as the portrayed "Silver Savior" knocks away an unknown object from a child. The child was unhurt from the incident but the nameless hero was unavailable for comment."

Joe folds the paper back up and places it under his arm. "Well, I'll let you rest and get something to eat Felicia."

"Hold on a second Joe."

"Hmm? What is it?"

"How come I can't remember anything about last night?" A small sweat drop rolls down the back of Joe's head as he sighs and begins his explanation of Felicia's short term memory loss. "When I smashed my arm through Donovan's little toy, I wasn't expecting that big of an explosion and well… to make a long story short I was the reason for your headache. A large piece of metal hit broke off and crashed into your head causing the memory loss."

"That explains why my head hurts, but it doesn't explain why we're still alive."

"I'm getting to that. For some reason Anita was comatose since I appeared in your world and Donovan tried everything he knew to wake her up. He got this idea thinking that I was the cause for Anita's condition and that's why he tried to seal me away. Once Donovan saw Anita was ok, he completely forgot that I was still there."

"Well, I guess we got off easy huh?" Joe stares at the floor before finishing his explanation. "As Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling helped Donovan to a car they uh, "borrowed" from the parking lot, Anita said something to me that has nothing to do with that night."

"_If you fight the shadows with the power you have now… you will die."_

"What would make her say something like that?" Joe looks up and finds that his explanation is making Felicia worry. "Hey, don't worry about me. I'm not going anywhere for a long time."

"But…" Felicia's stomach growls loudly stopping her from commenting. Joe laughs as Felicia blushes from embarrassment. "You better eat before this gets cold. I'll see ya later Felicia." Joe walks out of the room and shuts the wooden door behind him. Felicia falls onto her chest and wraps her arms around a pillow. _He's so considerate. Apologizing for hitting me even though it was an accident and thinking about my safety before anything else. If I was a human, we could have been…_ Once again Felicia's stomach growls to remind her to eat. "Ok, I'll eat now. Even my own stomach won't let me fantasize…"

(End Episode 15)

* * *

_Trailer for the next episode…_

Joe: Let's see… today is October 31.

Cats: Yay!

Jeff: What are they so happy about?

Joe: It's Halloween night Jeff.

Jeff: And you're point is what exactly?

Grace: It's the one time of the year we don't have to hide our identities from the public eye of humans.

Joe: Sounds like we are gonna have a blast tonight!

Jeff: Until someone figures out that those aren't costumes… (is hit with several high velocity pumpkins)

Cats: Don't think like that!

Joe: Dude, sucks to be you.

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **_Episode 16: Halloween Terror_**

Felicia: It's going to be a frightfully wonderful night!

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**Author Note:** Let's see here… I did the football episode, now I got the major holidays coming up soon. Just wait until I get to the two-part Christmas and New Year Episodes. Until then why not check out my other story (Unlikely Heroes) that has just been released with the addition of this chapter. 


	16. Halloween Terror

**Author Note:** Halloween, the one time of the year where eating candy till you puke and scaring the daylights out of people is just as fun as… well, I can't think of anything right now. Enjoy my first of several holiday inspired episodes!

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**_Episode 16: Halloween Terror_**

It's a comfortable autumn day as the family of cat women prepare for another day of living in a world that doesn't belong to them. Joe and Jeff's parents returned from their cruse early when word of the several strange events that have happened in their city reached them. Joe decided to move the cats into the "closed" camp when his parents weren't watching as they locked the door behind them. But that was a week ago, now it's a new day for the cat family.

Jeff is walking up the path to the camp with several bags filled with supplies for his ever hungry guests in his arms as he watches as the last few leaves break off of the trees and fall to the ground below. _How much longer we can keep this lie going? It's a miracle that our bank account hasn't been completely burned away._ Jeff puts the bags down on the ground and looks for his key when the front door swings open. _Crap…_ Three white blurs dash out of the house and tackle the unprepared human to the ground.

"J-J's here and he's got food!"

"My name is Jeff!"

Pico, Nana, and Alto grab the bags as they run back into the camp as Jeff brushes himself off from the sudden strike. _Joe should put up a "Danger: Cat Woman crossing" sign up here._ The tan haired human stands up to find Lucy standing in the doorway. "Where's that other human?"

"You mean Joe?"

"Yes. He said he had to run an 'errand' and hasn't returned yet. Also, Felicia has been in her room all day with the door locked and the only time it open was for that human to come out." Lucy aims an angry fist at Jeff's face and sneers. "If he's doing what I think he's doing to Felicia, I'll kill him and you." Jeff snickers as he knocks the pissed off cat woman's fist away from his face. "You couldn't beat me in a fight anyways. Did you forget about my "projects" with damaged Huitzil technology?"

"I don't care if you have an army of robot fighters! I can take you on any day of the week you filthy human!" Invisible sparks of lighting fire off from their eyes as Jeff and Lucy stare each other down. "That's enough you two!" Grace steps between them in order to break up the oncoming brawl. "Listen up, it's Halloween night and I'm taking the little ones out. I don't want the two of you fighting while we're out." Jeff heads for the house but stops to add in his two cents. "What? You think me and Lucy are going to become a couple like my brother and Felicia?"

An embarrassed Lucy swings a fist at the human who ducks under the punch and takes off into the house. Grace holds back the angry Lucy as she flails around trying to vent her anger out on Jeff's face. "Let me go Grace. I just need two minutes with him and he'll never talk like that to me again!" The elder cat woman releases Lucy once she clams down. "Just be glad someone is talking to you at all."

"And what s that supposed to mean Grace?" Lucy questions as reties her bandanna around her head. "Last time I checked you were still upset over the death of your friend…"

"Shut up Grace! I don't know about you, but I'm not going to let my emotions get the best of me." Lucy walks up to her room and shuts the door tight behind her. Grace looks up at the closed door and sighs to herself. _She'll never forget you Zen…_

In Lucy's room, the cat woman removes her bandana and pulls out a small photo from underneath the cloth strip. The picture shows Lucy hanging off someone's right shoulder giving a peace sign to the camera. _Dumb human… why did I ever fall for him?_

**(Flashback: a few years before Lucy met Felicia in the Darkstalkers world)**

Lucy is running through the woods late at night with a human pulling her along by her arm. The human is shrouded in darkness as a gunshot ricochets off a nearby tree. A mob of humans armed with rifles and torches are only a few hundred yards behind the fleeing couple. Both figures duck behind a tree and vanish from the sight of the mob.

"Where did they go?"

"Let's try that way!"

The mob splits up and goes off in several different directions. The faceless human peeks out from a hollowed out tree and finds the mob gone.

"They're gone for now Lucy." The bandana-less Lucy comes into view and the human finds a small trickle of blood coming down the left side of her head. "Lucy, you're bleeding?" Lucy wipes away the blood with a paw and wipes it against the ground. "I'm fine." The human removes something from his head and wraps it around Lucy's head. Lucy's face begins to turn a light shade of red as the human finishes tying the makeshift bandage around her head. "There. Hey, are you ok Lucy?"

The voice of the faceless human echoes through Lucy's mind as she returns back to reality. Someone knocks loudly on her door as she ties her bandana around her head. "Who's there?" Jeff walks into the room with a large bag on his shoulder. "What are you doing in here?"

"I'm here because I feel like asking you a question. What? Is talking with you cats against your "code" too?"

"Bah, like you have anything good to say to me."

"Ok then." Jeff pulls out two tickets and waves them in front of Lucy. "What are those?" Lucy questions as Jeff stuffs the tickets back in his pocket. "If you must know, they are tickets to get into the hottest party tonight. I was supposed to go with my brother, but seeing he's not here…" Lucy frowns as she interrupts Jeff once again. "I'll go with you." Lucy's sudden agreement catches Jeff off guard. "On one condition."

Later that night, Lucy is standing alone at the refreshment table with a pissed off look on her face. The bouncer had strict orders not to let anyone enter unless they had a ticket and were in a costume. Lucy has been waiting for Jeff to get into his costume for two hours and has lost all her patience with him. _That's it! The next time I see that loser, I'm gonna…_ Just then, three guys dressed like zombies approach the ticked off cat woman.

"Hey, hey! What's a kitty like you doing all alone?" Lucy pays no attention to the man. "Wow, she's a cold one isn't she guys?" The men start to laugh loudly and draw attention as a vein on Lucy's forehead begins to throb. One of the men places an arm around Lucy's shoulders and continues to hit on her. "If you come home with me, I'll keep you happy. Right guys?" As the men laugh at their buddy's pathetic pickup line, Lucy grabs the man's arm and twists it behind his back. The man groans in pain as his shoulder is popped out of place. Lucy throws the man down on the ground as the music grows louder. "What the hell is your problem?" Lucy looks at the two remaining men and stares them down without saying a word.

Seconds later, the bodies of two beaten men are seen flying across the room and crash into the bar. Several containers of alcohol shatter and their contents spill onto the bloodied bodies as the bouncers approach Lucy.

"I'm sorry, but we'll have to ask you to leave."

"Fine, I was just leaving."

Lucy stares at the crowd which splits apart to allow the still fuming cat woman out of the club. However, Lucy's actions have attracted the attention of certain pale skinned human who has been standing in a far corner the entire time. _Even the cats have arrived into this world… I guess Christmas came early for this rocker._

Some time after the one sided brawl Jeff, dressed as Zero from the Megaman Zero games, flashes his ticket to the bouncer at the door and walks into the club. He spends about fifteen minutes trying to find Lucy and eventually sits down at an empty table to collect his thoughts. _I didn't think it would take me so long to find a suitable place to change… Lucy must have took off already._

"Looking for someone?" Jeff looks up and is surprised to find Morrigan standing on the other side of the table. "Why are you here?"

"What? I can't enjoy myself like normal humans?"

"You aren't human…"

"Same idea." Jeff stands up and faces away from Morrigan. "Don't you want to know where your friend went?"

"Lucy isn't my friend." A strange look comes over Morrigan's face as she walks away. "You know, I liked your other costume better."

"What 'other' costume are you…" As Jeff spins around he finds Morrigan has left him alone. _What is she talking about? This is my…_ Jeff's watch begins to flash wildly as he calmly walks to the men's room. He enters an unoccupied stall and presses a small button on the side of the watch. A bright light catches the attention of someone in the next stall who looks under the divider and finds no one there.

"That's it. No more martinis tonight."

In a flash of light Jeff appears in the alley behind the club and looks at his watch. _There's a couple of low B class Darkstalkers not far from here. I should call Joe…_ Jeff reaches for his cell phone under his outfit and stops. _Wait a second. I can handle a couple of class B weaklings._ The motivated human takes off down the alley towards the location of the two Darkstalkers.

Meanwhile, Lucy is walking down an empty street towards the park. She wraps her arms around her body to generate some heat. _Dammit, I forgot my jacket back at the club…_ Lucy stops on a bridge that crosses over a small stream in the middle of the dark park and looks at her own reflection. _Why me? Why does everything go wrong for me?_

**(Flashback: six months after Lucy's "friend" Zen saved her from the mob of angry humans)**

"What do you mean Zen's dead! It can't be true!" Lucy's eyes are filled with tears as the doctor explains to her the reason of Zen's demise. "There was nothing we could do. The virus was resistant to every antibiotic we put in him." The inconsolable Lucy falls onto her knees and continues to cry as the doctor peeks out his window. "Why? Why did you have to die Zen?"

_Poor girl… at least the hunters will end her suffering._

"Doctor, was it me? Was I the reason for Zen's death?" The doctor looks into Lucy's emotional eyes and tells her the truth. "No my dear, you were not the cause of his death." The doctor helps Lucy into a chair and hands her some tissues. "Listen to me, you must leave this place and never return."

"WHAT? Why not?"

"Your friend did not die from a sickness. He was killed because he loved you." The doctor notices that Lucy's eyes are not shedding tears of sorrow but are now tears of rage. "Why… why must humans hate me?"

"It is because humans fear what they are unable to control. Now you must leave before the hunters arrive. Go out the back door, it should give you more time to run." Lucy pulls the cloth Zen wrapped her head out of the pocket of her jeans and folds it in half to create a bandana. "Zen… I'll never forget you."

Small ripples start to appear which warp Lucy's reflection in the stream. Small tears slowly fall out of Lucy's eyes and into the stream causing her image in the water to become warped. _I'm crying… why? I thought I was over that guy?_

"Who are you talking about?" Jeff appears behind Lucy who wipes away any sign of tears from her eyes before taking a claw swipe at Jeff's face. Seeing the incoming attack, Jeff ducks under the swipe but the claw cuts his long blonde wig from his head. As the wig falls to the surface of the bridge Jeff stands up and hands Lucy her jacket. "Here, this may be the last nice thing I ever do for you." Lucy takes the jacket and looks at Jeff just as an invisible after image of Zen covers his body. "You ok Lucy?" Thinking its Zen speaking to her Lucy, accidentally speaks his name instead of Jeff's. _Figures…_ Jeff walks over and leans on the railing of the bridge next to Lucy.

"I know who Zen is Lucy. He was your first love huh?"

"Who are you talking about? I don't know anyone named…" Jeff grabs the rest of his torn wig and tosses it to the ground. "I asked Grace and Felicia a while ago to find out why you hate humans with such passion and I know why." Before Lucy can open her mouth Jeff finishes his statement. "Don't worry; I'm not going to tell Joe. If there's one thing we can agree on, it's that he and Felicia are becoming a little to "close" with each other, right?"

_He's kind of like Zen, but he'll never take his place._

As Jeff and Lucy walk to the end of the bridge a menacing laugh echoes through the moonlit park. Jeff's watch scans the area and picks up the other Darkstalker that he was tracking. "Whoever you are show yourself!" The undead rocking zombie Lord Raptor explodes out of the ground in front of them and slams on his guitar. _A human accompanied by a cat girl… they're the ones that bitch Morrigan was talking about._

"What do you want Zabel?"

"You know my name is Lord Raptor kitty cat. What I don't get about you Felicia is why you're hanging with this human?"

Jeff leans over to Lucy to find out why he has her name mixed up with Felicia's. "He must have been hit one too many times in that fragile skull of his." Their discussion is broken up when Raptor attempts to chop them into pieces with his patented leg saw. Jeff knocks Lucy away from the incoming attack and stares down the undead Darkstalker. Lucy is horrified as she looks up just in time to see Raptor's kick slice Jeff's head off of his body. Suddenly the decapitated body explodes blowing the two Darkstalkers in separate directions. Raptor vanishes within the flames of the explosion while Lucy stares into the incoming flames as her world becomes black.

"Lucy…"

_Uh…_

"LUCY!"

A sharp pain racing through Lucy's body causes her to jump back to reality. She pulls her tail around and finds Nana busily gnawing down in the middle of her white tail. The young cat girl stops and lunges at Lucy to give a big hug. "You're ok!" Nana starts to cry as Lucy pulls her off and sets her on the ground. Lucy finds herself under a tree in the park with Grace, Alto and Pico next to her. "What happened? The last thing I remember is…" The bandana cat woman looks around and finds Jeff in his street clothes fighting off Lord Raptor with a beam saber. Two elongated bones extend out from Raptor's wrists as he counters Jeff's beam slashes. Their blades lock together as Lucy tries to collect her thoughts.

"Just what the hell is going on around here? I know I saw that human explode when Raptor cut off his head." Grace tries to give Lucy the short version of their current situation. "Ok, what you saw explode was Jeff's double."

"Double?"

"Yes. It was an untested project that Jeff decided to try out by taking you to the party. Unfortunately he wasn't expecting his double to meet a Darkstalker so soon. He never had a chance to equip it with a weapon and now it's a crater."

"But, what about the explosion?"

"Raptor must have avoided it by digging underground. However, you on the other hand would be dead if it wasn't for Jeff."

"How could that powerless human have helped me?"

Time rewinds back as Grace explains the answer to Lucy's question. "Moments before the explosion could reach you Jeff jumped in front of you and deflected the blast with some kind of barrier. We saw him speeding down a street and followed him until he arrived here." Jeff breaks through the stalemate and forces Raptor back. _He saved me? Why?_

Raptor's bone blades retract into his arms as Jeff takes a defensive stance by angling the blade across his chest. _Good thing I took those fencing lessons in school or else I'd be dead._ While Jeff plans out his next move, shadow slowly creeps up behind the five cat women. A large black hand exits the shadow and gives Raptor a "thumbs up" before retracting the hand. The rocking zombie snickers as Jeff questions his opponent's actions. "What's so funny?"

"Fool. I heard about your power and I want it."

"What power?"

"Don't try to hide it. You are the one who fights against the strange machines and becomes buddies with Darkstalkers. Now, either you give me that power or I'll make you!" Jeff looks around himself and finds only the five cat women in their area. _What is he talking about? There isn't anyone around us but the girls. Wait a minute! Where's Le Marta? I haven't seen him since we started…_ Jeff spots a large black object beginning to tower over the five unaware cats. "Look out!"

Time seems to slow down as Lucy turns around to find a large mouth closing around her. The other cats watch in horror as Lucy and the black shadow vanish into the ground. Jeff turns back to Raptor who is laughing wildly as his clothes change into a basketball outfit. The enlarged Le Marta spits a blue and white sphere to Raptor before transforming into a basketball hoop. "Give me that ball, I'm your target you damn coward!"

"Sorry, but the only way you're getting this ball is taking it from my dead hands." Raptor bounces the Lucy sphere a few times on the ground before jumping high into the air. _No time to use the blaster… time to get desperate._ Jeff runs towards the hoop as Raptor comes down with the ball over his head. "Activate Leg Jacks now!" Both of Jeff's legs flash gold as he squats down to block Raptor's shot. "Too late human I win!" The two airborne warriors pass by each other and land away from each other. Jeff falls to a knee as Raptor laughs at his apparent victory. "I told ya you couldn't win. Wait a second… where's my arms!" Raptor looks at his arms which have been cut off at the elbows as Jeff rises to his feet.

"Too bad, that would have worked if I didn't use my beam saber to slice you as we passed. Dead limbs are so easy to cut…" The Lucy ball is safely tucked away under Jeff's left arm as Raptor takes to the air once again. "No one makes a fool of Lord Raptor and lives!" The enraged zombie begins to spin around and produce a powerful electric field, but Jeff snickers at his disarmed opponent. _I'm not going t lose to such a lame attack._ "Catch guys!" Jeff throws Lucy to her friends and jumps away from Raptor who comes down and ends his attack. Before Raptor can realize it Jeff has vanished from sight. "What's the matter human? Scared to fight me?" Suddenly, Raptor hears a soft click behind him and slowly turns his head around so that he is looking directly behind him. Jeff is on one knee pointing a long beam rifle at Raptor's body. "Trick or Treat bitch." Jeff pulls the trigger of his weapon and sends his undead opponent on a one way ticket out of the city on a beam of energy. _Not the way to get rid of a zombie but it worked._

After watching Le Marta run after Raptor, Jeff walks over to the still converted Lucy in Grace's arms and scratches his head. "Ok… why is Lucy still a ball?" As Jeff takes the ball from Grace the sphere pops returning Lucy to her original form. "I can't believe that damn zombie got the best of me." Jeff's hands are frozen on Lucy's chest and ass. Lucy swings a hard right and sends Jeff into the stream. _You do one nice thing and this is how she repays you._

Back at the camp Joe enters Felicia's room through an open window and places a plastic bag down on a table and sits on the end of the bed. "You feel any better Felicia?" A groggy looking cat woman sticks her head out from under a blanket and sneezes. "What do you think? Ugh…" Felicia lies her head back down on a soft pillow as Joe places a hand on her forehead. "Well, your fever broke. You should be back to normal in a few more days Felicia." Joe sits against a nearby wall and watches Felicia turn on her left side to face him.

"Joe?"

"Hmm? What is it Felicia? You should try to get some sleep."

"I have to ask you something."

"Listen, I promise to make this wasted day up to you somehow, ok Felicia?" The bedridden cat girl pulls a blanket over her body, rolls onto her other side and falls fast asleep. The human stares out the window and sighs before drifting into a deep sleep. As Joe and Felicia sleep, two figures are floating outside the window looking in on them. The two shadow covered figures reveal themselves as Morrigan and Demitri.

"So this is the human who rivals the dark… I'm not impressed."

"Give him time, he's only realizing his potential."

"The only reason he has not mastered his power is because of that girl. He's only using enough power to protect her and not to kill his opponents. I could put that power to better use."

"If you want to fight him, I won't stop you. However…" Morrigan floats away from the demonic Demitri. "…if you want to continue your quest to control Demon World, I would advise you not to battle that human. Appearances can be deceiving." With her warning said, Morrigan vanishes from sight in a flash of yellow energy. Demitri looks down at the snoozing pair and fumes. _If this human was so powerful, why hasn't he sensed us? I'll find out how powerful this human truly is in due time._

Meanwhile, Dami watches all of the current events from the safety of Demitri's castle. Several viewing screens are places against the wall showing the location of each Darkstalker. _Everything is going to plan Pyron will arrive at the planet in six months and with some luck, he'll take out that annoying human and his pathetic Darkstalker friends._

(End Episode 16)

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_Trailer for the next episode…_

Jeff: Remember that promise you made to Felicia a few weeks ago? The one about "making up" for her missing Halloween.

Joe: Yea… what about it?

Jeff: It's time to pay up.

Joe: No way! I got 3 final exams and a paper due next week. I can't be…

Jeff: (points out the door) Ahem.

Joe: Oh shit.

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **_Episode 17: Joe's First Date_**

Joe: That's right… WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!

Author (aka: me): Truth sucks doesn't it?

Joe: This is not my… (is struck by lighting)

Jeff: Dude! Did you just lie to the Author?

Joe: (coughs) No. (struck again) Yes.

Lilith Blackheart: What smells like pwned human?

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**Author Note:** Sorry for the WAY overdue update. Two words: School Sucks. See? I can write a chapter without having Joe as the center of attention. 


	17. Joe’s First Date

**Author Note:** My story is number 10 on the site? I'm not letting that happen! By my command, I order this story to rise from the grave. (nothing happens) I said rise damn it! Oh well, here's the long over due Chapter 17. I'm just glad this isn't my final paper…

**Reader Warning:** Foul language ahead

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In an alley of the city, Joe is being savagely beaten by a gang of humans who are enjoying every moment of the one sided assault. "This will teach you not to mess with me!" screams one of the attackers as he slams a hard punch into Joe's stomach. The beaten and bloodied human coughs blood onto his attacker's shoes only driving him deeper into a fit of rage. "That's it!" Someone throws the attacker an iron bar from the darkness to continue his attack. As the now armed attacker raises the bar over his head to deal a final blow, he tries to figure out how he ended up in this situation. 

_I can't transform in front of these guys. How did my night with Felicia go to hell so quickly…?_

_**Episode 17: Joe's First Date**_

"Come on Joe!"

"No."

"But you promised!"

"And I said NO!"

Joe is trying to read one of several textbooks stacked on his desk but his brother Jeff keeps talking to him. "Why won't you fulfill your promise to Felicia?" A sly smile cuts across his face as Joe refuses to answer. "Oh, I know why. You're scared that Felicia will see the real you and not the hardcore, badass fighter she's used to seeing am I right?"

"Will you shut up?" Joe slams shut the open textbook and turns around in his chair. "I got three finals and a paper due next week. I don't have the time to do anything social until I get this crap turned in."

"Tsk tsk… this is why I'm trying to get you out of here and back into the real world." A loud crash comes from downstairs followed by the voices of several angry cat people. "And that's my cue to leave. Good thing our parents are gone for the weekend or else the girls would not be able to visit." Joe watches as his younger brother vanishes from the room and slams the door shut behind him. _Now that he's gone I can't get back to…studying?_ His notebook has disappeared. "Ok, who took my stuff?" A soft giggle comes from behind him as Joe turns around to find his notebook wrapped in Felicia's tail. _I should have known…_ "What are you doing here Felicia?"

"Your brother told me to stay here while he tried to settle whatever is going on downstairs." The feline hands over the notebook and leans against the back of his chair as Joe attempts to continue his studies. "Is there something I can help you with Felicia?" The fur striped girl lies down on his bed looking up at the ceiling as Joe returns to his textbook.

_**(A few hours later…)**_

_I finally got my essay done and studied for my upcoming exams. Only because I was left alone for the time I needed…_ The worn out human exits his room only to knock someone to the floor. "Watch where you're going Joe!"

"Sorry Felicia." A silver bracelet around Felicia's left wrist catches his attention. "Uh Felicia, where did you get that bracelet?" The cat girl looks at her wrist and smiles. "You're brother gave it to me as he asked to marry me." Joe's face turns pale white as Felicia's words register in his mind. Suddenly, the cat girl in front of Joe fades away and Jeff stands in front of his shocked brother with a victorious grin on his face. "You are so gullible Joe!"

"…" Without saying a single word Joe winds up and slugs his brother in the back of the head with his fist knocking him back to the ground. "Damn it Joe! What the hell was that for?"

"For being an idiot." As Jeff grabs the back of his head, he tosses the bracelet to his brother. "You better enjoy tonight because it is the last time I help you with your relationship with Felicia."

"What do you mean by that?" Before Jeff can answer his confused brother, the real Felicia walks by and winks at Joe as she head into her room. "JEFF!" The panicked brother attempts to escape by sliding down the railing but is caught by the collar of his shirt by his pissed off brother. "Explain now or…"

"Or what? You don't have the guts to really hurt me."

"No. But, I know who switched Lucy's shampoo with Maple Syrup last week when she was taking a shower." Jeff's heart nearly stops as he remembers about his little prank. "Who told you about that?" Joe releases his brother after getting his undivided attention. "That doesn't matter. Either you tell me what Felicia knows about tonight or I tell Lucy who turned her hair into a sticky mess." Jeff sighs as he hands over a sealed envelope to his brother. "What is this?"

"Those are the reservations I made for you and Felicia for a dinner on Friday night." The sealed envelope slips out of Joe's hand and floats to the ground. "Are you ok Joe?" Jeff's answer comes in the form of his brother passing out and hitting the floor. Felicia pops her head from her room to find Joe lying on his back passed out. "What happened to him?"

"He got a little overexcited about tonight and hit his head against the wall."

That evening Joe used the dinner reservations Jeff brought and took Felicia out to a formal restaurant. However, Joe's idea of a formal dinner is a burger, fries, and a shake. _Jeff knows that dressing up in a suit pisses me off. He had better hope that it's REAL late when I get home or I'll…_

"Uh Joe?" The voice of a blue haired human wearing a long red dress from across the table catches Joe's attention. "Your food is starting to get cold." Joe looks down at his plate to find that his expensive meal is losing its steam. As the suited human begins to eat his food, Felicia ponders the reason behind Joe's invitation to dinner. _He's never done anything like this before… maybe he has something to tell me! _While waiting for the bill Felicia strikes up a conversation with Joe just as he is finishing his water. "I can't believe you were able to convince the owner of this place to serve me."

"It was easy Felicia." _Easy because of Jeff's little toy._

_**(Flashback)**_

Jeff was giving Joe a few last minute details about the sliver bracelet while adjusting the collar to his suit. "Now remember, that thing affects everyone but the person wearing it. I have preset the bracelet to make Felicia appear human. But remember that this doesn't change her physical status. If someone happens to find out the truth…" Joe gags as Jeff tightens his collar a little too tight. "Damn it Jeff! No one his going to find out about…"

"Find out about what Joe?" The two humans turn around to find Felicia wearing a new bright red dress that only covers a small portion of her shoulders. "How do I look?" The chaotic fighter is speechless while his brother elbows him in the back. _Go on already._ "I got something for you Felicia." Joe pulls out the silver bracelet from his suit coat and snaps it around Felicia's left wrist. The clothed neko looks at Joe who begins to sweat from being stared by his date. "It's really nice of you to get this for me Joe." Without warning the bracelet activates creating the illusion of a human Felicia. "Ready to get going Joe?" The de-furred Felicia notices that her date is unresponsive. "Are you ok?"

"Huh? Yea I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"No reason." As the couple walks out the door, Jeff smacks his hand against his head. _Joe you're hopeless…_

Back at the restaurant Joe is helping Felicia into her jacket when someone slams a hand down on his shoulder. A cold chill runs through Joe's body as a familiar voice from his past returns. "Hey Joe it's me Mike." A lanky individual stands over the suited Joe and continues to pound on his shoulders. "What have you been up to lately? Huh?" Mike spots Felicia standing behind Joe and knocks him away to approach the disguised Felicia. "Well what do we have here? Since when are you the ladies man Joe?"

"Knock it off Mike." However Joe's "old friend" continues to annoy him. "So what's your name cutie?"

"Felicia."

"That's a great name for a great person." As Mike starts to get friendly with Felicia, Joe grabs a hold of Felicia's arm and starts to walk away but Mike stops him as they head for the door. "Hold on a second Joe. I'm not done talking to Felicia yet." _Oh, you're done alright._ The couple walks out the door as the shot down Mike whips out a cell phone. _How dare he prevent me from talking to that girl._ "Yea, it's me. I got a job for you." _Now to find out how that loser Joe was able to score such a hottie._

"MY CAR IS MISSING? HOW THE F#CK DO YOU LOSE AN ENTIRE CAR!" Several veins in Joe's head begin to bulge as he verbally rips apart the frightened valet. The valet cringes as he gives an obvious excuse. "I'm sorry sir, but yelling at me won't bring back your vehicle." A low growl comes from the pissed human as he walks away. _Damn incompetent workers…_

Clouds begin to form above the angry human as he walks to the restaurant entrance. _Man, I've really screwed up this night._ Joe walks into the restaurant and finds Felicia sitting at the bar with Mike. _You got to be kidding me._ Before Joe can move further into the restaurant, three large gentlemen block his way. "Excuse me sir. But I have to ask you to leave."

"I'll be leaving once I get my friend." As Joe walks past one of the men, the man grabs a hold of his shoulder. "You have to leave now." The confrontation at the front door begins to attract the attention of several other people. "Sir, please leave the building or else we will be forced to remove you."

"Get off of me. I'll leave after I…" One of the other men stabs Joe in the back with a small but powerful tazer dropping him to the ground. "Sorry for the interruption folks." The men drag Joe out the door as Felicia viewed the entire event. As the cat girl stands up Mike cuts her off from leaving. "Where are you going?"

"I have to go catch my ride."

"Joe won't mind waiting for you."

The stunned Joe is dragged to the alley behind the restaurant and is thrown into a row of garbage cans. Large dents are engraved into the cans as Joe's body flies into them. _Damn it. Why is this happening to me?_ The three large men close in as Joe rises to his feet. "So, who's first?"

Meanwhile, Felicia's ears pick up the faint sound of falling trash cans and walks away from the bar. But once again Mike prevents Felicia from walking away. "Wait let me buy you a drink."

"Thanks. But I really have to leave." _That's it! _Fed up with Felicia's want to leave, Mike grabs the bracelet and pulls it off of her arm snapping it in two. "What the hell are you?"

"Huh?" The image of the full human Felicia vanishes as the effect of Jeff's bracelet wears off. Chaos ensues as the patrons chase Felicia out of the restaurant. Felicia's dress is a mess as she dashes out the door and launches herself up onto the fire escape of a nearby building to evade the mob. _What just happened? How come everyone became angry with me after being so nice?_ A loud crash catches Felicia's attention as she tears off the remainder of her dress and jumps down into the alley behind the restaurant. Felicia hides behind a dumpster to see what the commotion is about. Through the darkness of the alley, Felicia finds Joe being beaten up by other humans. Before she can help him, Mike walks out the back door of the restaurant and looks at Joe who struggles to stand up.

"So, you thought you could hide that hot girl from me by using this device to make her look like a freak of nature huh?" Mike throws the silver bracelet to the ground and stomps on it shattering the bracelet to pieces. Suddenly, Joe charges at Mike with a tightly clenched fist but is dropped to the ground once again when one of the large men slams a hard punch into his stomach. The force of the blow to the already beat human causes Joe to spit blood onto Mike's expensive shoes.

"You punk!" Mike kicks Joe in the head with his bloody shoe and motions one of the men to hand him an iron bar from a nearby garbage can. "Any last requests before I mess up that pretty face?" Two of the men hold Joe's arms back as Mike taps the iron bar against his hand ready to strike him down. "Yea, why don't you shut the f#ck up and do it already." A small chuckle comes out of Mike as he raises the bar over Joe's head. "Whatever you say." As Mike drops the bar down, Joe hangs his head and thinks about the last few hours of his life. _I deserve this for lying to Felicia about tonight._

Mike watches helplessly as the two men holding back his victim suddenly releases Joe who falls onto his back causing Mike to strike the ground instead of Joe's head. "What's wrong with you morons? Pick him back up!" The men are motionless as Mike approaches them. "Hey, are you two awake." The two men fall to the ground as Mike backs away from the unresponsive men. "What's going on around here! Hey you…" A look of absolute horror cuts across Mike's face as he finds the third man being held up in the air by an unknown individual. The attacker tosses the knocked out man into the dumpster and walks over to Mike. "Get back!" The frightened human throws the bar at the approaching assailant only to see the bar get knocked down to the ground by a white flash. Mike backs into a wall and shivers in fear as the attacker closes in. "What do you want with me?" Two green eyes pierce through the dark and into Mike's heart as he looks up at his attacker.

"Boo." Mike screams in fear before passing out on the ground of the alley. "Serves him right. Now where's…"

The next morning Joe finds himself lying in his own bed and a couple bandages on his face. "What happened to me?"

"You got your ass kicked that's what." Joe finds his brother leaning against a wall who walks over and punches him in the head. "Ow! What the hell was that for Jeff?"

"That was for having Felicia drag your sorry ass home after getting beat up by Mike of all people! Why didn't you transform and beat the crap out of him?" Joe looks down at his bed as Felicia walks into the room. "Well, I'll let her finish ripping you out." Felicia shuts the door behind Jeff and stands in front of Joe who roll away from her. A vein nearly pops out of Felicia's head as she kicks Joe out of his bed and to the floor. "Were you thinking that I would just ignore the fact that you lied to me about people accepting me!"

"How did you…" Felicia drops the shattered remains of the silver bracelet in from of Joe. "…" The cat girl looks down at Joe and walks out of the room without saying anything to him. Joe slams his fist into the carpeted floor in anger. _Damn it! I really messed up this time. Felicia will never forgive me… _Even though Felicia and Joe thought they were alone, three sets of eyes watched the latest events unfold from the outside window.

(End of episode 17)

* * *

_Trailer for the next chapter…_

Jeff: DUDE! Felicia has been really pissed off with you for weeks now.

Joe: I know.

Jeff: Well, what are you going to do about it yet?

Joe: (insert excuse here)

Jeff: Well you better do something to fix this little situation soon; Christmas is coming in a few days. If you get her something nice… you did get her something for Christmas, right Joe?

Joe: Of course! I got her a…

Jeff: Don't tell me you forgot!

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **_Chapter 18: Christmas Chaos (part 1)_**

Jeff: Run Joe RUN! Only a few days until doomsday…

Joe: Kiss my chaos throwin ass!

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**Author Note:** DAMN, two whole months and then this chapter? Sorry, but between school, work, and random crap I had to push this back a while. Well, get ready because the (late) Christmas Mini-Series is coming up next! Until then, read, review, and sleep. (Wait, sleep? Yea that's it…) 


	18. Christmas Chaos part 1

**Author Note:** School still sucks as I type and may the spirit of Christmas compel you to read this! I know it's hella late…

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**_Episode 18: Christmas Chaos (part 1)_**

It has only been one month since the night Joe's relationship with a certain cat woman went south. Joe has tried several times to apologize for his actions, but he has only made the problem worse with each failed attempt. Jeff is busy looking through the stack of newspaper ads trying to find a good deal on computer parts just as his brother walks through the door with a fresh scratch on his face and flower peddles in his hair. "What did you do with the first-aid kit?" Jeff points to the top of the refrigerator without looking as Joe grabs the kit to repair his face. However, the kit seems to have a different agenda as the metal box opens up and dumps its contents all over Joe before landing on his head.

"Another failed attempt to appease the pissed cat I see." Comments Jeff as he hands his brother an ice pack to shrink the bruise on the back of his head. "All I did was buy Felicia some flowers and…"

"Let me guess. She's allergic." Joe timidly nods yes as his brother sighs. "You have to be the worse guy in the world when it comes to landing the girl of your dreams."

"Shut up." Jeff pulls out his laptop and opens up a file showing a crude movie with chibi versions of Joe and Felicia. "The hell is this?"

"I though it would be fun to animate your current problems… plus I needed something to do." The chibi Joe runs off the screen and comes back with a box of chocolates only to have Felicia smash the box over his head knocking him out. "Care to explain?"

"She thought I was being funny and got pissed." Again the little Joe runs off and comes back with a movie only to have Felicia kick him in the stomach. "I remember this one. You thought you bought her a romantic movie and you ended up buying her a…"

"Can we just go to the next one?" This time the onscreen Joe hands Felicia a card only to be sliced apart by Felicia. The end of the scene forces Joe to answer his confused brother again. "I tried to make Felicia a card with my computer but somehow the picture I took of her got warped and made her look fat."

"So that's why you hid from mom and dad last week. I was wondering where all the gauze pads went…" Joe looks pissed as he finds his animated self approaching Felicia with a bundle of fresh flowers. "Uh, you might not want to watch this one Joe." As Felicia accepts the flowers, the flowers turn into a baseball bat as she swings and knocks Joe into the blank horizon before the screen goes black. "I was only playing around Joe."

"Forget it." The disheartened human heads over to the refigator and pulls out the milk as his brother hands him a flyer from the morning paper. "What am I supposed to do with a flyer for a sale on jewelry?" Jeff begins to type on his laptop as he answers his brother. "I'm just giving you some ideas to find a decent gift for Felicia to give her on Christmas." Joe takes a sip from the carton as Jeff stops typing on his computer. "Uh, you did get her something for Christmas didn't you?" Joe's eyes dilate as he realizes his mistake. "JOE! Please tell me you didn't forget."

"I didn't forget I just…" The room grows silent as the two brothers stare at each other. "You forgot didn't you?" Joe tosses the milk carton back in the refrigerator, grabs his jacket, and flies out the back door towards the shopping district. "You better hurry, only a few days left!" yells Jeff as he is hit with a small energy ball which blows him back into the house. "Real mature Joe!" screams Jeff as he brushes off charred pieces of his shirt.

_(2 days before Christmas Eve)_

Joe has spent the last two days searching the city for a gift for Felicia. _Damn Jeff, he got the others gifts and expected me to get Felicia something?_ As he walks past an alley, a quick flash catches his attention. _Hmm?_ Letting his curiosity get the best of him, Joe walks into the alley and finds a black alley cat scrounging through garbage cans looking for something to eat. The animal finds Joe looking down and mews softly to him.

"Heh, I guess I'm not the only one feeling alone am I?" A few scraps of fish are the best Joe can find for the helpless creature who begins to chomp away on the salvaged food. The grateful cat licks its face clean and begins to rub against Joe's leg, purring happily after being fed. "At least I can make someone feel wanted this year." The air grows cold as Joe picks up the cat and jumps to the other side of the alley just as something crashes behind him. "Who's there?"

"Well, I guess what Morrigan said about you was right." The self-proclaimed "Demon King" descends from the sky and stands in front of Joe. "What do you want Demitri? I don't have time to play with you."

"Too bad human…you have no choice!" Demitri transforms into his full demon mode and lunges at Joe preventing him from powering up himself. Joe dodges the initial attack, but is pinned against the wall by Demitri's powerful tail. "Damn you." The Darkstalker returns to his normal state and picks Joe up over his head. "This is the human Morrigan warned me about? I've fought demons more challenging that you." The black cat Joe saved from Demitri's sneak attack jumps at the demon with its claws out only to get knocked into the other wall with a flick of Demitri's wrist. "The weak shouldn't fight against the strong." Joe watches as the cat's body bounces off of the ground and lies motionless at the foot of the wall. "Now where was I?"

Demitri turns his attention back to Joe only to get slammed in the face with a fist. The punch frees Joe from Demitri's grip and forces the demon to back away. "How did you get stronger without me noticing?" Joe brushes away his long sliver hair and tightly clenches his right fist as Demitri looks over his opponent. "Not bad. But still not good enough to defeat the future…" A hard punch to the ribs silences the demon as Joe backs away from Demitri.

"You talk way too much. You know that?" Rage fills Demitri's body as Joe casually walks past him and picks up the unmoving animal's body from the ground. "I will not allow you to disgrace me like this!" Demitri instantly transforms into his demonic form and fires off a volley of energy bats at the resisting human. A large explosion damages the two buildings as Demitri hovers in the air above him handiwork. "Next time, don't expect mercy."

"You sure you killed him?"

"What is it now Morrigan?" The sex driven Morrigan appears next to Demitri and looks down at the burning buildings. "You didn't have to use that attack. This will only make him harder to coax into fighting…"

"You make it seem like I failed to kill my opponent." Morrigan sighs and points down at a tree located on the other side of the street of the burning buildings. "Then who is that?" The silver haired human stands atop of the tree holding the injured cat in his arms and looks up at the two high leveled Darkstalkers before vanishing into the night. "What!"

"Looks like the great future demon king isn't as strong as he once thought." Demitri pulls his cloak over his face and vanishes into the night, leaving Morrigan alone. "I was only kidding."

Sometime later, Joe lands behind his upstate camp and quietly enters the through the back door. _Good. It looks like everyone's asleep._ As Joe sneaks through the kitchen, someone turns on the light catching Joe by surprise. "So what are you doing here?" The angry Felicia appears in front of Joe with her arms folded across her chest. "You better give me one good reason why I should wake up Lucy and let her… oh my God!" Joe silences the ranting cat woman by pulling out the wounded alley cat from his jacket and laying it down on the table. "What happened?"

"I'll explain later."

The next morning, the black cat enjoys a good meal provided by the family of cat people as Joe finishes explaining how he came to care for the stray. "And that's how I ended up taking this one here." Grace picks up the empty bowl and places it in the sink as the cat jumps onto Joe's shoulder and purrs happily. Suddenly, the cat begins to meow randomly drawing the attention of the adult cats to it. "Uh, guys? I don't speak neko remember?" Felicia translates for the human.

"According to her, there are two more of "us" in the city, but she doesn't know where they are." Joe scratches his head in confusion as Pico speaks up. "We haven't heard from Nonno or Mimi in a while Felicia."

"You're right. Do you think there are more cat people in your world Joe?"

"Maybe. But wouldn't you have picked up their scent by now?" Lucy cuts Felicia off from answering Joe. "We aren't tracking devices you know. We can only sense those who we have a connection with." Felicia is sniffing the air around the backdoor as Joe approaches her. "Is something wrong Felicia?" As Joe places a hand on her shoulder, Felicia takes a swipe at him and misses. "Felicia! What gives?" The fighting female's eyes sharpen as she smashes through the backdoor and takes off into the woods. "What's up with Felicia guys?" Grace walks over to the door and sniffs the air where Felicia lost control. "There's something in the air… but it can't be! Lucy, Joe take the young ones upstairs and don't follow me no matter what!"

"Wait a second Grace!" But Joe's words fall on deaf ears as Grace takes off after Felicia. "Lucy, stay here and call Jeff."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm following Grace." With that said Joe ran out the door following Grace into the woods. "Ok guys, let's grab our new friend and… has anyone seen that black cat?" The little cats shake their heads as Lucy herds them upstairs.

Meanwhile, the sprinting Joe catches up to Lucy in the middle of the woods. "Why did you take off like that Grace?" Before she can answer him, a loud scream destroys the silence of the mid-morning forest. "That way." Once again, Grace takes off leaving Joe behind to play catch up. "Hold on a second!" _Damn it, I lost sight of her…_

While Joe runs clueless through the forest, Grace runs into a clearing to find Felicia fighting against Gallon. _How is Gallon still alive? I thought Joe and Jon killed him months ago!_ Behind the two battling Darkstalkers lies a steel cage leaning up against a tree with something in it. As Grace approaches the cage, the something turns out to be the two young cat girls Nonno and Mimi passed out inside the locked cage. _What are they doing in there?_

"That's for us to know and for you to find out." Grace looks above the cage and is horrified at her discovery. "What the?" A black figure jumps down from the top of the cage and quickly overwhelms Grace.

Joe runs through the forest now looking for two cat women who have ditched him for unknown reasons. After running for what seemed like forever, Joe stops and leans against a tree to catch his breath and thoughts. _Where did they go? I can't seem to find them anywhere…_ A loud scream echoes throughout the wooded area which causes several flocks of birds to scatter from their trees and sends a chill through Joe's body. _That sounded like Grace and it came from the lake…_

The human exits the forest to find the two cat women inside a cage along with two younger cat girls. _Those must be Nonno and Mimi. But who locked them inside?_ Joe sprints across the short grass and arrives at the cage containing the captured cats only to find all four of them unconscious. _No one's around… time to go chaos._ The human transforms in a flash and reaches for the cage door just as Grace begins to recover.

"Uh, what? Wait Joe, Don't touch the…" A large bolt of black energy exits the door of the cage and slams into Joe sending him flying backwards into a nearby thorn bush. "Damn it!" Joe jumps out of the bush and pulls several sharp thorns out of his ass before walking back to the cage. "I tried to warn you Joe."

"Yea, yea… just move away from the door because I'm going to rip it away in a second."

"Oh really? I'd like to see you try!" Joe slides to his left to avoid being hit by Gallon. "Miss me human?" The silver haired human chuckles as he stands up to face the black furred werewolf. "Not really." Joe's right fist begins to gather energy as he charges directly at Gallon. "I'll make sure you don't get another chance to mess with my friends again!"

A sly smile cuts across Gallon's face as Joe closes in. _That fool doesn't even realize the danger he's in._ Joe slams his fist into Gallon's face and is surprised to find out that his attack had no effect. "What the hell is going on?" Joe backs away in disbelief and loses focus on his target. However, Gallon doesn't waste a moment by dropping a knee into Joe's stomach and impaling a claw into the stunned human's left arm. A scream of intense pain exits Joe's mouth as Gallon's nails tear through skin, muscle, and tendons. "You son of a…" Gallon removes his claw from Joe's arm and picks up his wounded target by his shirt.

"I can't believe how ignorant you are… you charge forward without thinking and its cost you the only advantage you had over me."

"What?" Joe's hair suddenly changes back to its normal length and color as blood starts to run down his arm. Gallon tosses Joe onto his back and laughs as he tries to stand up with only one capable arm. "How did you power me down?" The black werewolf kicks Joe in the chest which knocks him to the edge of the frozen lake and pins the wounded human down by his bloodied arm. "You can thank Dami for sealing that annoying power. I don't know how he did it, but I'm glad he did." A smile twisted by pain etches across Joe's face as he looks up at the confidant Gallon. "What could you possibly be smiling about? Has the pain caused you to lose all sense of reality?"

Even Grace wonders what is going on through Joe's mind as his smile becomes creepy. _His left arm is pouring out blood, his power has been sealed away, but Joe smiles…why?_

"While you have been standing on my unusable arm, I've come up with another battle plan that should work."

"And that is?" Gallon tries to finish the job by planting a foot through Joe's heart only to freeze cold. "What did you do to me? You aren't supposed to have any powers!" The frozen werewolf looks behind himself to see Joe's right arm wrapped tightly around his tail. Gallon roars out in pain as Joe pulls down on the furry black tail. "Hurts don't it?"

"Filthy human." Gallon's foot comes off of Joe's injured arm as he tries to lessen the pain giving Joe the chance he needed. "What do you thing you're doing?" Joe has released the tail but has jumped onto the back of Gallon and now has his head snapped back in a one arm headlock. "Not bad for a filthy human huh?" The angry werewolf starts to flail his claws around in an attempt to remove the clinging human from his back. One of the claw swipes catches Joe's already wounded arm and sprays blood into Gallon's eyes. "My eyes! You're damn blood blinded me!" As Gallon stumbles around blindly, the two locked warriors creep closer and closer to the edge of the lake. _Come on… fall down already!_

"Joe!" Grace's warning stops the blinded werewolf. _Damn, guess there's no choice now…_ Joe grabs onto the neck fur of Gallon and leans back towards the iced over lake. "I guess we're both going for a swim wolf boy!" The two fighters land onto the ice and slide out to the middle to the lake. "I get it now. You were hoping to pull us underwater and drown me right?"

"Well that was the idea." As Joe backs away from Gallon, his brother appears in the sky above them and pulls out a handgun from his backpack. Jeff whips out a magazine of his custom energy bullets, locks it into the weapon, and rapidly fires off a volley of eight shots before landing behind his brother. "Your pathetic brother missed!"

"Who said I was aiming at you?" The ice under Gallon's feet shatters sending the werewolf under the freezing cold water. "Nice shooting." Suddenly, the ice beneath Joe's feet begins to crack. _You have got to be kidding me. _Joe looks down to find a large crack under his feet quickly growing larger by the second. "Yea, nice shooting Jeff." The bleeding human follows Gallon by slipping under the ice. "Oh shit."

As Joe sinks deeper under the water, he notices Gallon swimming towards the surface. _Oh, hell no!_ The one armed human grabs onto Gallon's right leg preventing him from returning to the surface. Gallon tries to escape Joe's solid grip but to no avail. _Is this human planning on killing both of us? Well, he isn't getting me!_ The desperate werewolf wraps his tail around Joe's neck and begins to squeeze the air from his neck. Joe releases a large amount of stored life-sustaining oxygen which bubbles away up towards the surface. _Am I going to die? It just can't end like this…_

As Joe starts to black out from a lack of oxygen, a faint beam of light begins to close in on the two swimming fighters. _What kind of trick is this? I thought Dami said that his seal would prevent the human from using his power…_ The light engulfs Gallon and Joe before shooting straight out of the icy water and into the sky. Jeff shoots out the door of the cage just in time to notice the beam of light coming out of the lake. "What's going on here?"

_**To be continued…

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******__Trailer for the next episode…_

Joe: How did I survive?

Unknown voice: You're lucky I found you when I did. You nearly died from blood loss.

Joe: Felicia?

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 19: Christmas Chaos (part 2)**

Joe: I must be dreaming…

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**Author Note:** Uh yea, (insert excuse for not typing here). 


	19. Christmas Chaos part 2

**Author Note:** I just realized that this story will be one year old soon! I'd better get cracking on some form of a filler chapter…

**Reader Warning:** There are some extremely violent/graphic scenes in this chapter. Don't say I didn't warn you…

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**_Episode 19: Christmas Chaos (part 2)_**

As the unknown beam continued to shine, Joe and Gallon were still battling it out within the near blinding light that seemed to have them trapped in an upward pull.

"You filthy human, how dare you trap me in this light!"

"Me? I thought you were behind this…" Joe flinches in pain as the wounds on his arm continue to spew blood. As Joe places his right hand over a bleeding gash, Gallon appears directly in front of him with a sinister smile on his face. "Die human." The black furred werewolf plows a hard right into Joe's face and knocks him out of the light. Suddenly, the pull of the beam reverses and Gallon begins a decent back to the lake. "Well, now that's he's gone I can finally claim the cat as my own."

A nun strolls through an open field with a basket full of flowers in her arm with a smile on her face and stops on the path to pick up a few more flowers. A gust of wind kicks up and blows the flowers out of the basket. _Now I have to gather them all over again. _Sighs the young nun as she begins to gather up the scattered flowers. The nun suddenly drops the picked flowers and runs back to the church screaming for help as she discovers Joe's bloodied body. Just as a group of nuns approach the prone human, Joe cracks open an eye to see the outline of an unfamiliar person standing over him. "Felicia?"_ No… this one's hair is much too short…_

Sometime later, Joe awakens to find himself lying in a small closet spaced room with his head bandaged. His arm is completely wrapped in a makeshift cast of cloth wraps and wooden planks making it impossible to stretch out his arm from its bent position. Joe looks at himself to find his shredded and bloody winter clothes have been replaced with a simple brown priest's cloak. _Ok, where am I now?_

Outside the door of his room Joe can hear a small child crying. After a long period of crying Joe decides to get up and find the child's caretaker. _Man, what kind of parent leaves their kid alone to cry?_ Joe exits the small room with the use of his uninjured right hand and finds a small newborn crying in a crib made off straw. As Joe reaches for the child someone bursts through the door and screams at him. "Get away from my child you damn human!" Before Joe can turn around he is smacked in the face with a strong backhand and dropped instantly to the ground. "I knew we should have let you die."

"Ow, what do you mean by 'damn human'?" Joe rubs his face gently as he looks up to find a blue, short-haired woman standing over him cradling the child against her chest to sleep. The child clams down in the person's arms and falls asleep as Joe tries to identify the person who hit him. "Huh? Is that you Felicia?" The woman turns to Joe with a funny look on her face. "That's not my name, but it is the second time you've called me that." Snaps the human woman as she places the now sleeping baby back in its crib and turns her full attention back to Joe. She grabs him by the back of his clothes and tosses him back into the tiny room. "That's not very nice you know."

"Shut your mouth." Fumes the angry female as she looks at the human who continues to stare at her. "What is it now?" queries the woman snapping Joe back to reality. "Just because you have been unconscious for a couple of days doesn't give you the right to stare."

"It's nothing." The nameless woman sighs as she backs away from Joe's bed and leans against the wall. "You haven't stopped staring at me yet."

"Sorry, you look really familiar to this cat…" The woman rushes over and covers Joe's mouth before he can finish his sentence. "Shut up for a second." The woman peeks out the door to check out the area and finding no one around she shuts the door behind her and removes her garments. Joe reacts by turning away from the stripping woman and looks at the opposite wall. "If you know what I am, than you shouldn't be embarrassed human." Reluctantly, Joe turns his head to find a fur stripped cat woman standing in front of him. However, the nameless cat woman has a large piece of her left ear missing. "How is it that you know about the cat woman race? We haven't revealed ourselves to public eyes… you better start explaining before I get angry."

"Well, it's like this…" Night quickly falls onto the church as Joe wraps up his explanation to his less than friendly feline visitor. "That's my story. In my world, cat women don't exist and somehow I was sent into a world where they do."

"Strange… I don't know of any cat women who go by the names you listed. You said that this 'Felicia' is supposed to be your closest friend?"

"Yea, but I screwed up and now she doesn't want to talk to me anymore."

"You should take it as a blessing." States the cat woman as she stands up from leaning against a wall. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's simple. Nothing good can come from a human and a cat woman being together." The nameless feline turns around and shows Joe her back. "What the hell happened to your back?" Numerous old scars cover the woman's back as a permanent reminder of her relations with humans. "You really want to know? Fine."

_When I was a young cat girl, I had the belief that humans and cat women could co-exist together without problems. However, youth creates foolish ideals. On my twenty-first birthday (42 in human years), I was captured by a group of Darkstalker Hunters and sold to a powerful human to be his "personal servant". For six years I suffered just about every kind of mental and physical torture that man and his flunkies could think of. _

_The final straw was when they drugged me and had their way with my body. After I recovered, I took out all my frustration by killing each and every human I could find in a blind rage. When I had calmed down, I found my hands covered in the blood of the men who had taken great pleasure in hurting me. For some reason I wasn't happy with the deaths of these men, so I left that evil place and set out to see the world._

_After several months of traveling, I collapsed in the same field the nuns of this church found you and they told me that I was with child. I knew someday those men would force me to bear offspring so they could make more money. But, I didn't want this child to realize that their birth was because humans thought of me as their personal plaything. After the birth, I went into the room where my child was sleeping and prepared to show pity by ending the newborn's life. _

_Just as I was about to strike, she woke up and looked right at me. She didn't cry when she saw me. For the first time in my life I found someone who had a neutral opinion of me and my appearance. I couldn't do it; I just couldn't end the life of someone I brought into this world. So now I take care of this child and I have no problem with it._

"What about the nuns here? I don't think they would mind if you told them the truth…"

"No! No one can ever know about us, I won't let my daughter be used like I was…" A loud crash from outside the room catches the pair's attention. "What was that?"

"I don't know." Answers the still unidentified cat woman as she dresses herself and heads for the door. "Wait!"

"What is it now?" questions the disguised neko with a hint of annoyance. "What is your name?" The woman is surprised to hear someone ask of her name. "You are strange… but my name is Katrina. And you're?"

"The name is Joe Zammer and I'm not just a weak human." The woman chuckles as she walks out the door. "I'm not weak!" The cat woman leans up against the door and sighs. _That human sure is strange. He survived what looked like a long fall and he doesn't even realize how hurt he is._ Katrina walks towards the next room and finds her child missing. "Where is she!"

"Hey cat!" screams a man's voice. "Get out here before we end up killing you're kid!"

_Not him…_Katrina's body tightens up as she walks out the front door to find all of the nuns of the church laying facedown on the ground with their bodies ridden with bullet wounds. "How could you? They were human!" A man with the body and strength of a giant walks out from behind a row of his mindless goons and stands in front of Katrina.

"So, you are the creature who killed my father huh?" Katrina pulls off her head piece to show off the cut left ear to the man. "Yea I am."

"You know, there is a huge bounty on your head for killing those ten humans…" The cat laughs at the uninvited man as she tears off her dress revealing her fur striped and scared body. "Only ten? I thought I took out at least **twenty**…"

"Enough! First one to kill her gets to claim the bounty!" The group of men whips out automatic weapons and aim them at Katrina. _Hmm, there's about thirty of them… this is gonna be quick._ "FIRE!" A barrage of gunfire rains down on Katrina kicking up a large cloud of dust in the process. "Hold it. Let's make sure we hit her." A random flunky walks into the cloud and vanishes into the darkness. Seconds later, the man starts firing in random directions hitting several of his fellow hunters.

_What is that idiot doing?_

"Hey, knock it off!" The area goes quiet as Katrina walks out of the cloud dragging a heavily bruised and frightened human with her. "I think this belongs to you." The man looks up at his feline attacker and scrambles to get away from the angry cat. "Boss, this isn't worth it! She is not an ordinary Darkstalker…" The frightened man is silenced by his boss with a well placed gunshot to the back of the head. The contents of the shot man's head spill onto the ground as the leader reloads his custom made rifle and laughs at the cat woman.

"You think you are so clever, but let's see how clever you are when you face…" The ranting is silenced as the still bandaged Joe delivers an lighting fast jab into the man's midsection. "You talk too much, you know that?" mocks Joe as he dropkicks the hunched over man in the face knocking out the so called hunter with ease. Katrina is left speechless as Joe walks over to her cradling the child in his uninjured arm. "I think this belongs to you."

"How did you do that?" stammers Katrina as Joe wraps the sleeping child in a blanket and sets the package on the ground. "Do what?" Joe looks back to find the man lying motionless on the ground. "Oh that, it's nothing. I told you I wasn't weak."

_I guess not._

The punched out man reaches into a hidden holster strapped to his hip and pulls out a loaded handgun with a silencer attached. _You damn dark lover… you are a traitor to your own race…_ Even though the shot is too quiet for Joe to hear, it is loud enough for Katrina to react. "Look out!" The once anti-human cat woman shoves Joe out of the path of the bullet but is blasted in the chest by the hunter's shot. Seconds feel like hours as Joe watches the mortally wounded cat woman fall onto her back. _Katrina…NO! _"KATRINA!"

Joe's voice echoes through the night as Katrina lies motionless on the ground…

_**To be continued…

* * *

**_

_Trailer for the next episode:_

Joe: Katrina, you can't die… what about your child?

Man: I'll take good care of that child.

Joe: (growls) No you won't!

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 20: Christmas Chaos (part 3)**

Joe: My chaos power may still be sealed away by Dami's "Shadow Seal"… but this one has been released!

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**  
Author Note: **That's right loyal reader, Joe's "other" form is making an explosive comeback and boy is it a comeback… and you thought you saw the end of him. Think again!

PS: For those who care, there are only a few more installments of this story left and no I am **_NOT_** kidding to get more hits. 


	20. Christmas Chaos part 3

**Author Note:** Here we go, the final installment of my Darkstalkers "Christmas Special"! Took me long enough…

**Reader Warning: **There are some scenes where blood, physical injury, and bad language run like water. So if you don't like it, there is always the "Back" button…

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_Quick recap:_

_Last time, Joe Zammer and Gallon were pulled into a beam of light to continue their battle. However, Gallon got the upper hand by knocking Joe out of the light and beginning his descent towards the earth. _

_When Joe regained consciousness he found himself in a small side room of a church and a crying baby just outside his room. As he attempted to calm the child, he was nearly knocked out by an unidentified assailant. The woman turned out to be the child's mother and wanted an explanation to Joe's unorthodox arrival. _

_As Joe explained himself, he revealed that he knew about the existence of cat women. This information shocked the woman who revealed herself as Katrina, a cat woman who was captured, raped, and abused by a powerful human and his flunkies. Before anything else could be said, there was a commotion outside Joe's room and Katrina went to investigate. On her way out of the room Katrina noticed that her child was missing from her crib and became enraged when she found out a bunch of Darkstalker Hunters were responsible for the kidnapping and the slaughter of the nuns who took care of the church._

_Utilizing her lighting fast speed, Katrina successfully dodged a torrent of gunfire and scared the shit out of a flunky. The leader showed his "power" by killing the frightened follower with a single, long distance rifle shot to the head and then turned towards Katrina. But Katrina had a guardian angel by the name of Joe as he arrived out of nowhere and KO'd the man with a two hit combo. As Joe celebrated his apparent victory by fetching Katrina's child, the man recovered and fired off a single shot which was supposed to end Joe's life. Instead, Katrina absorbed the shot which proved fatal._

_We return to just after Katrina is hit…_

**_Episode 20: Christmas Chaos (part 3)_**

Joe watches in horror as the single bullet meant for him, ripped through Katrina spraying blood out of her body and dying the ground red. "KATRINA!" screamed Joe as the wounded cat woman fell like a rag doll onto her back. The horrified human arrived seconds later to find Katrina staring up at the sky with tears in her eyes. She slightly turned her head to find Joe ripping a piece of his cloak off and desperately trying to stop the profuse bleeding. "Katrina, why did you do that? You shouldn't have saved me…why?"

"It's because you are kind." The woman's statement shocks Joe as she places a hand on his face. Joe's only free hand is covered in the wounded Darkstalker's blood as he continues to try and save her. "Forget it human. I'm as good as gone anyway…"

"Don't say that! You'll be alright… I'll get help and…" Katrina removes Joe's hand from her opened wound and shakes her head. "Katrina…" The dying cat reaches into her hair and pulls out a tiny green stone attached by a black chain. "Please, make sure you give the "Neko's Heart" to my daughter when she reaches her eighteenth birthday and make sure…"

_Neko's Heart? _

The mortally wounded cat woman coughs up a large amount of blood as Joe cradles her. "Stop talking. You have to conserve your strength…" The once human hating neko looks at possibly one of the few humans that ever showed any compassion to her and smiles. "I wish I had met you when I was younger… I guess not all humans are against Dark Ones."

"If you give people a chance to understand, they would come to terms eventually." _Great, now I sound like Felicia…_

"Just make sure my daughter learns that not all humans are bad." Joe's emotions are frozen as Katrina places the stone around his neck and falls limp in his arms. "Katrina… hey wake up… Katrina, you can't die. What about your child? You can't leave her alone! KATRINA!" Joe's screams echo in the night as the remaining hunters close in around him.

"Hey boss, you alright?" asks one of the followers as their leader stands up and finds Joe crying over the body of Katrina with the child lying next to her. "Forget it, the bounty was only good as long as we brought it in alive. Let's take the child and auction it to the highest bidder." The men agree with laughter as Joe stands up. "Hey look guys, the dark lover is crying! What's the matter? Are you that upset that I killed your little friend?" The leader orders one of his men to approach the silent Joe and the man aims his weapon at the back of Joe's head.

"I don't want to kill you, but there are laws against helping the "Dark Ones" and the penalty is death!" The lackey looks at his commander who gives a hand signal to fire but is unable to fire his weapon because the barrel of the rifle has been slashed to pieces. The man then reaches for his pistol only to be knocked out by a hard right hook. "What is going on here?"

The stone around the crying human's neck begins to shine brightly in the night as the once tear ridden human now stares at the shallow end of the human race. "You killed someone who was forgiven for her sins…" Joe's eyes are as red as Katrina's spilled blood while his body goes through an unforgettable transformation from chaotic human to rampaging neko. The bandages around Joe's left arm are torn to shreds as his hands convert into sharp claws. His bandages around his head are ripped in two when his sharpened cat ears burst out from underneath the cloth to replace his weaker human ones. His feet are cut down a few shoe sizes as his finger and toe nails become razor sharp. Every muscle in his body becomes supercharged with rage as a long stream of silver hair runs down Joe's back. Finally, a light coating of silver fur and a three foot long tail completes the rage educed transformation. The end result is a terrifying male cat person bent on revenge. "…and now, you will die for yours!"

"Shoot that thing dead now!" A hail of gunfire greets Joe as he dashes towards the group of humans with his claws fully extended. In a flash, the creature avoids the barrage and knocks out about half of the humans with lighting fast attacks. The leader watches in horror as the group of men are easily taken out in a matter of a few minutes. _No way! Those were the best men money could buy… and they were all taken out by just two Darkstalkers?_ The nekoized Joe tosses the body of a knocked out hunter to the ground and walks towards the leader while licking a small trace of blood from his claws. The light from the hunter's torches accidentally ignites the nearby grass sparking a small, but illuminating fire. The flames light up the raging creature's vengeful expression filling the leader's heart with fear.

"Now, how **do** I end your pathetic existence?" Questions the still pissed off fighter. "How does ripping off each one of your limbs until you are nothing but a pile of crap sound?" The man doesn't answer his attacker as he stares into space unable to reach his gun or speak for his heart as been frozen over with fear. "No answer? Fine…" The rage filled warrior charges towards the fear frozen hunter with both claws opened. "Then I'll just **TEAR OFF YOUR FUCKING HEAD!**" Joe lines up his razor sharp fingers in his right hand and locks onto the man's jugular vein. "Die worthless human!"

Suddenly, the child begins to cry loudly causing Joe to regain his senses as well as his eyes return to a shade of aqua. _What the hell is going on?_ Finding himself already too late to stop, Joe closes his right fist and plants an extra hard punch to the face of Katrina's killer. The force of the punch causes the man's body to perform a full three-sixty flip and land facedown on the ground. "Serves you right, murderer." _Katrina…_

The calmed neko walks over to the child and cradles her in his semi-furry arms. "It's alright little one. You are not alone…" The child looks up at the male cat and giggles. "That's better…yeow!" Joe yelps as the child grabs a firm hold on his ears and pulls down on them. "That's one hell of a grip you have there…" Joe pulls away the grabbing child's hands just as the child falls back asleep. He lies the child down on the ground and begins to dig a makeshift grave for the fallen cat woman with his claws.

During the digging, the knocked out lackeys recover from the beating inflicted by Joe. "If you wish to see sunrise, leave this place and never return!" Without any resistance the men jump into their trucks and prepare to leave. "Wait a second. You forgot something…" Joe tosses the still unconscious leader into the back of a truck and stares down the driver who peels rubber to escape the fear educing creature. _Back to work…_

Several hours later, Joe finishes the grave for the cat woman as well as graves for the murdered nuns and kneels down on the bloodied ground to pray. _They didn't deserve this. Why couldn't I save them?_ As Joe opens his eyes, his furry ears pick up the sound of footsteps.

"How long were you standing there?" A middle aged nun walks out of the woods with a crucifix and a bible pointed at Joe. "Those won't work on me." The nun puts her "weapons" into a pocket inside her gown and accepts the nine month old child from Joe. "Please take care of this child." Joe walks away from the nun just as a familiar beam of light falls from the sky and lands in front of him. The nun calls out to the stranger just as Joe enters the light.

"What is the child's name?" Joe's mind goes blank as he is pulled into the sky. But as he vanishes, he can just barely make out the name the nun gives the orphaned child. _It can't be…!_ The light vanishes into the night along with the feline empowered human.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the lake Jeff tries his best to hold off Gallon with two of his beam handguns when the weapons suddenly stop working. "This isn't a good time for a glitch…" The black werewolf punches the now unarmed Jeff in the chest and sends the human careening into a tree. The impact knocks Jeff's beam guns out of his hands and a shoulder out of its socket. "Damn it…" 

"Now for the girl." Gallon makes his way over to the still passed out Felicia only to have Lucy and Grace stand in his way. "Out of my way weaklings." The merciless black werewolf blows both cat women into a tree knocking out the defiant cat women. However, the five youngest cats now replace their guardians in blocking Gallon's path. "Do you little flea bags think you have any chance in stopping me?"

"You leave them alone…" A beam of light separates Gallon from the girls as the familiar outline of the "nekoized" Joe walks out of the light before vanishing into the sky. Nonno and Mimi look up at the male cat person and question his existence. "That's Jo-Jo." Pico answers her friends. "We have nothing to worry about now that he's here." Gallon locks onto his furry enemy and laughs as he circles around Joe. "So, you got yourself a new form…it won't help you win."

"And why's that?" answers Joe as he keeps his attention centered on the werewolf while making sure Felicia, Lucy and Grace are attended by the others. "That form is losing power and soon you will be never be able to use it ever again." Joe's tail begins to sway around as he prepares to battle Gallon. "You are right and wrong about this form wolf. After today, this form will cease to exist." Gallon quickly charges his aura and vanishes from sight. Joe's ears twitch around as he scans the area for Gallon's location.

"However…" Joe turns around and throws a punch that connects with Gallon's face. The black werewolf grabs his snout and stares at the furry human as Joe tosses a fang in his hand. "Ouch, you aren't winning any beauty pageants with this missing." The werewolf jumps up to his feet and launches into his version of Jon's "Beast Cannon". Joe looks at the hand containing Gallon's fang and notices that he is starting to change back.

_Damn, not now. Might as well use up the rest of this form's strength and with wolf boy's fang as an amplifier, I should be able to beat him. _

"Die human!" The werewolf howls with rage as Joe charges the removed fang with his own energy. "Sorry, but I'm not dying today." The fang shatters into dust as Joe's right claw is engulfed in a blue aura. "**Delta-Claw!**" As Gallon closes in, Joe swings the charged claw directly into the path of Gallon's "Beast Cannon". The energy of the colliding attacks twist around their owners sealing them inside of each other's power as a few of the previously knocked out combatants recover. Jeff wakes up first to find his neko empowered brother going toe to toe with the relentless enemy. _No way! Since when is Joe able to use energy attacks in his cat form?_

"You cannot defeat me human." growls Gallon as Joe's neko form fades away. "You're attack has failed!"

"Has it?" A small opening about the size of a baseball has opened in the energy prison surrounding Joe. "How did you do that? Our attacks were of equal strength!"

"True, but I wasn't planning for a draw." As the neko power leaves his body, Joe returns to his human form and automatically enters his chaos form. "I was planning on opening a small enough hole for this!" A small amount of energy gathers in Joe's left hand as he begins to lose the silver shine in his hair. "Ugh, it may not be able to kill you, but this is going to hurt like hell for the both of us…" A tiny ball of energy leaves Joe's hand without a command and hovers between him and Gallon.

_Boom._ The tiny sphere detonates in the void between the two warriors and reacts with the swirling prisons by engulfing Joe and Gallon in twin explosions. Jeff reaches his feet only to get knocked back down by a wave of snow from the two explosions. "Damn it Joe!" _Could he have made that blast any bigger?_

The blast has caused the snow around the area to be kicked up and is now causing whiteout conditions. Jeff struggles to find the others in the makeshift blizzard and spots someone walking towards him carrying something. "Who's there? I'm warning you, I'm armed!"_ With useless weapons…_ That someone turns out to be Joe carrying the unmoving bodies of Felicia and Lucy under his arms with the rest of the gang of cats follows closely behind him. "You jerk. I was about to shoot you."

"You wouldn't shoot your own brother, would you?" questions Joe as he lies down the pair of cat women. _Man, someone needs to cut back on the food…my back is killing me!_ "The idea did cross my mind." Joe unknowingly slaps his brother in the still dislocated shoulder which Jeff returns with a swift punch to his dumbass brother's arm.

A few moments later, Felicia and Grace finally wake up to find themselves surrounded by their allies. "What happened?" questions Felicia as she finds everyone looking down at her and Lucy. "What happened to Gallon?"

"He's gone Felicia." Answers Grace. "Joe sent him away with an attack." The recovering cat woman tries to stand up only to have Grace sit her back down. "Felicia, you need to rest. Gallon's gone and…"

"He's not gone yet!" The group looks at Felicia in shock and then around to find the "invisible" werewolf. "You might not see him, but I can still smell him and he's…" Joe's eyes flash aqua as he turns around to find Gallon attempting to crush his neck in his fang ridden jaw. At the last second, Joe grabs a hold of Gallon's mouth and tries to hold open the life-ending bite.

"Hang on Joe!" Jeff whips out four small components and quickly combines his two handguns into a beam firing rifle. "I'll end this bastard's life with one shot!" As Jeff lines up Gallon in his sights, the five young cat girls latch onto his body causing him to drop his weapon. "What are you doing?"

"You'll hit Jo-Jo!" Argue the girls as Jeff struggles to pick up his rifle. "And he'll be killed if I don't shoot!"

The black werewolf knocks Joe onto his back with a quick sweep kick and pins down his prey's legs with his arms. Salvia from Gallon's fangs drips onto Joe's face causing him to become nauseous. _This is disgusting! If I get out of this, I'm going to kick his ass ten fold…_ With the only three backup fighters down, his own brother immobilized by a swarm of cat girls, and his own power drained through what he believes to be a fast trip through space and time; Joe determined…

"**THIS SUCKS!"**

Suddenly, Gallon quickly opened his jaws removing Joe's final safety guard and slammed them shut like a steel trap. Joe shut his eyes expecting to be instantly killed but opened them only seconds later to see black furred cat woman deliver what looks like Felicia's "Delta-Kick" to Gallon's head. The unexpecting werewolf's jaw missed Joe's neck by mere inches. _Whoa, a black furred cat woman? Since when does a cat woman have black fur in the Darkstalker universe? _But what really caught Joe's attention were his savior's eyes. The woman's deep maroon eyes pierced into Joe's mind leaving a permanent image in his memory.

Joe sat up on the cold ground to watch the nameless black cat woman pick up the KO'd werewolf and vanish into the snow covered woods. "I need a fucking vacation." Chuckles Joe before lying out on his back to look up at the clear blue, winter sky.

* * *

_(Christmas Eve-The family camp)_

Jeff made a quick stop at the city mall for more gifts for the two extra cat girls and then met the entire group at the camp. "Ok, who wants to open gifts?" questions Jeff before the five cat girls appear out of thin air on a direct path towards him. _Not again._ The tech wielding human is pounced by the five excited girls as they rummage through the wrapped gifts for the ones with the corresponding name. Watching from the safe point of the stairs, Joe laughs as his brother is trampled by the joyous cat girls.

"It's great that the two of you did this for the young ones." States a voice from behind. "Yea, I just hope the girls like their presents." answers Joe before turning around. Joe's face turns red as he finds Felicia, Lucy, and Grace dressed in skimpy Santa Claus outfits while Felicia is the only one wearing the matching hat.

"……"

"What's the matter?" snaps Lucy at Joe's stunned look. "You aren't unwrapping us. So get any perverted ideas out of your mind before I knock them out!" Joe's face goes from red to green as Lucy waves a fist in front of his face. Grace stops the grouchy Lucy by quickly changing the subject. "Let's go help the kits open gifts." Lucy follows after Grace down the stairs but not before giving Joe one final dirty look. "I guess I'm not even safe in my own mind anymore, eh Felicia?" The cat warrior sits down next to Joe on the stairs and paws the white ball on her hat with her tail as Jeff, Lucy and Grace try to sort of the confusion downstairs.

Several minutes go by before Felicia says something to Joe. "Hey, do you know who that black cat woman was?" Joe's surprised that Felicia would ask such a question even though the strange reversed-colored cat woman had the same exact fur pattern as Felicia. "I don't know who she is Felicia."

"It looked like the two of you met before." The eyes of the unknown cat woman reminded Joe of Katrina who he was die and couldn't do a thing to prevent her death from happening. _That woman's eyes…they were exactly like Katrina's but how? If I heard correctly, Katrina's daughter was named…_

"Hey you two!" A shoutout from Jeff snaps the mind searching Joe back to reality. "Are you doing to talk all night or are you going to come open your gifts?"

Most of the gifts for the cat women were either new clothes or gift certificates to buy the "unmentionables" the two males didn't have the testicular fortitude to go out and buy themselves. "Well, that's all the gifts guys." Says Jeff. "Damn, its late… time for bed."

As the gang heads for the stairs, Alto comes out from under the tree with a tiny box with Felicia's name on it. "There's one more and it's for Felicia." The little neko hands the popular feline the box who opens it to find an emerald green stone attached to a jet black chain lying in the middle of the box.

As the cats huddle around Felicia's new piece of jewelry, Jeff elbows his quiet than average brother in the ribs. "I didn't know you bought Felicia a necklace you devil." A look of confusion comes over Joe as he reaches for the necklace Katrina gave him only to find it missing. "Hey Jeff, have you seen the green necklace I was wearing when I got back home?"

"What necklace? You didn't have anything around your neck when you came home." Joe's mind is riddled with questions as Felicia puts on the new necklace. _I know I had Katrina's necklace when I left…did it somehow become my gift to Felicia without me knowing?_ The green stone rests comfortably on Felicia's neck as Joe looks out a window to find the sky full of stars. _I guess I'll let Felicia hang onto it for awhile… it's going to be a bitch to make her give it up if she isn't…_

"Joe?" asks Felicia. "Did you buy this for me?"

"Me? Who told you that I…" Jeff calmly walksbehind the group of cat women. _Great, now Lucy's gonna kick my ass._ "It was really sweet of you." Felicia's statement stuns everyone as something lands on Joe's head. As Joe picks up the object, it turns out to be a large piece of mistletoe attached to a string. The next thing Joe realizes, Felicia delivers a quick peck to his right cheek and backs away with a big smile on her face. "Can't break tradition right Joe?" The kissed Joe falls over onto his back drawing the concern from the group.

"What happened?" exclaims Felicia as Joe has a huge smile on his beet red face. "Guess I should have given him some warning huh?"

_**To Be Continued...

* * *

**_

Trailer for the next episode: 

Jeff: (Fainting from being kissed Joe? You are a pathetic excuse for a man…)

Joe: (So sue me. How was I supposed to know Pico, Nana, and Alto had that planned out? Besides, nothing happened that night between Felicia and I anyways.)

Jeff: (Meaning you'll be a virgin till the day you die?)

Joe: (Knock it off!) Next time, Donovan pays another visit to my home but he isn't after Felicia or any of the Darkstalkers… he's after me?

Jeff: I didn't know you were so powerful, could have fooled me.

Joe: CAN IT!

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 21: Training with the Best**

Joe: What do you mean I'm weak because I refuse to kill?

* * *

**Author Note: **Here is comes, either the next or the one after will be the final chapter to **Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life**. To be honest, I liked how this story has been, but I need to wrap it up and continue the storyline as another story. By know you know the drill, please leave a review on your way out and I'll try to reply ASAP. 

Damn, another 4,000+ word chapter… guess it's hard to end a good thing huh?


	21. Training with the Best

**Author Note:** It's official. Only two chapters until I end this portion of the story. Enjoy!

**Reader Warning: **Aww, screw it… You know what I'm going to say anyways…

* * *

Joe opens his eyes to find himself floating in space abovethe earth in a dreamlike state. _What the hell?_ Suddenly, a bright light flies past him and crashes full speed into the earth igniting the entire planet in flames. The chaos-educed human flies towards the burning planet only to be stopped by an unseen force. A voice from the darkness calls to him… "You must not fight this threat or someone close to you will be hurt…" The voice ceases as the earth explodes in a ball of fire absorbing the floating human as well. 

The "destroyed" Joe wakes up to find himself in a cold sweat with the digital alarm clock reading a quarter to four in the morning. He throws off the layers of blankets and swings his legs over the side of the bed. _Was that a vision or just a nightmare caused by eating Grace's spicy chowder as a midnight snack?_ Dazzled by his elaborate dream of earth's destruction, Joe lies back down on the bed to collect his thoughts. _Something isn't right…I can sense that something bad is going to happen soon, but what?_

As Joe goes back to sleep, the strange object continues on its path for the non-Capcom earth. _Soon, the creatures known as Darkstalkers shall feel my wrath!_

**_Episode 21: Training with the Best_**

A typical northeast snowstorm has struck the city with only twelve hours left until the end of the old year stranding the family of cat women at Joe's home. The plan was to ring in the New Year while the hero's parents were at a company party but the party was pushed back to until the storm let up leaving the cats stuck in the house. Luckily Joe was able to make his parents believe that the noise up stairs was from his new pet cat Felicia by showing them the cat woman in her full cat form.

"That was too close for my taste…" sighs Joe as he shuts the door behind him. Felicia jumps off of his shoulder and reverts back to her normal state. "Sorry about making you do that Felicia." The freshly transformed cat woman yawns as she curls up on Joe bed. "Nya? Did you say something Joe?"

Just then the door to Joe's closet burst open spilling out the rest of Felicia's friends. "I can't believe you jammed the seven of us in there!" screams Lucy from the bottom of the furry pile. "Well, it was the only place to put you guys until our parents stopped prying." Contends Jeff. "If you guys just stayed at the camp, none of this would have happened."

"What?" An angered Lucy stands up throwing the other cats all over the room. "Are you saying this is our fault?"

"Geez, I didn't know cat women can be so testy during their "time of the year"." Lucy delivers a quick smack to the back of Jeff's head as her face turns red. "The hell was that for you cat?"

"You shouldn't be making such inappropriate comments! Especially to someone as kind as I."

_Kind? More like bitchy…_

"I heard that human!" Only mere inches separate the two feuding "allies" as Grace attempts to break up the upcoming battle. The five younger cat girls are running around the room as Felicia can do nothing but squeak out a laugh while Joe has vanished from the room. _Now where did he go?_

Dressed in another set of warm clothes Joe takes a walk down his street to give himself some breathing room. _Should I be so carefree after having that horrible dream? What does it all mean and whose voice spoke to me?_ The snowstorm begins to lighten up as Joe turns the corner and bumps into someone. "Sorry buddy, I didn't…" The heavily clothed human looks up to find the famed Darkstalker Hunter Donovan with his traveling companions Anita and Dyhlic. Donovan tips his hat dumping some snow down on top of Joe.

"We meet again human." Joe brushes the snow out of his hair and jumps back from the Demphir ready for a fight. But the hunter holds a palm up to his readied opponent. "There is no need to fight today. I only wish to speak with you."

"Then start. I'm all ears…but if you try anything, I'll make sure you regret it."

The meeting moves to an empty snow filled lot in an isolated section of Joe's neighborhood where Donovan explains his mid-winter visit. Anita begins to build something in the snow with the assistance of her psychic power. "I don't think you brought me here to watch Anita build snow people did you Donovan?" The silent hunter watches Anita from a distance as he shocks Joe with an upsetting statement.

"You had the same dream as Anita didn't you?" Joe is left speechless as Donovan grabs a hold of his sword. "I thought so. Anita told me that the creature I destroyed some time ago has returned to this plane."

"But how? I thought you killed Pyron!" An image appears in the blade of Donovan's sword taking the shape of a glowing comet. Two red "eyes" appear as the sword shows that the current path places Pyron on a straight line towards the earth. The dream rapidly flashes through Joe's mind as the image fades. "How long?"

"The creature known as Pyron will arrive in a period of six months. However…" Little Anita wonders over to Donovan who picks up the child and places her on his shoulder. "…you must come with me and train."

"What?"

"I have seen you fight and it's pathetic." A vein in Joe's head bulges as Donovan continues to rip out the human. "You haven't gained any true strength at all. You throw energy at your opponent and expect them to be destroyed."

"Now hold on a sec…" Donovan interrupts the objecting human by tossing his sword at the ground in front of Joe. "This is what I am talking about. You are weak because you refuse to kill and you lack motivation."

"What do you mean? I fight because it's the right thing to do!" The impaled weapon pulls itself out of the ground and returns to its master's hand. Donovan places the enchanted sword back to its resting place and turns away from Joe. "If you want to know how to unleash the full ability of the power you seem to control, meet me in the north woods by dawn." The warrior gets several yards before stopping to add one last piece of info. "And make sure you have a reason to fight or else I will kill you."

_A reason to fight?_

"JOE!" The confused human turns around to find Jeff and Felicia running through the snow in his direction. "Hey Donovan, I…" The hunter and child have vanished from sight as the others arrive. _Wow, I need to learn how to pull that off._

"Hey, was there a Darkstalker here bro?"

"Yea, Donovan showed up again." Felicia's outfit consists mostly of Joe's extra winter clothes and an extra pair of leather boots. The cat woman walks over to Joe and looks at him. "What did he want? Is he still after the Darkstalkers?" Pressured by the locked eyes on him, Joe feels like telling them the truth to the Dark Hunter's visit but changes his mind.

_I can't tell them that we're all in extreme danger…_

"It was nothing. Donovan warned me that he will kill me if any Darkstalkers attack the humans in this city." The two brothers walk ahead as Felicia drops back and pays attention to Joe's attitude. _Something's wrong…I can sense a change in his character._ Leading Jeff and Felicia away from the area of Anita's snow sculpture was Joe's intention as the snow figures show Pyron standing over a shattered earth.

* * *

The snow finally stopped falling around six that evening allowing Jeff to safely transport the cats back to the camp. As the night grew on Grace took the younger cats upstairs to bed while Jeff, Joe, Lucy and Felicia remained down stairs. Lucy got her claws on some six packs of beer from the camp's "beer fridge" Jeff challenged his rival to a last person standing game of beer pong. The game continued until both players passed out at the same exact time making Felicia and Joe drag their drop dead drunk friends to the couches in the living room and let them sleep off the "game". 

Meanwhile, Joe started poked the fireplace with a "fire iron" and threw another log in to kick the fire back up. _Donovan's right, in my current state there's no way I can compete on Pyron's level. But I don't want to become like Dami. What if I become power hungry? I might end up doing something I'll regret…_

"Hey." Startled, Joe finds Felicia standing next to him holding up the family's photo album pointing to a picture where a newborn Joe has planted his face into a piece of birthday cake. _Oh for the love of god…_

"You were such a cute baby!" giggles the cat woman as she sits down and continues looking through the photos. "What this one?" The picture shows the pre-teen brothers dressed in suits standing outside a church. "Is it a wedding?"

"No, more like my grandfather's funeral."

"Oh…" Felicia arches her head as she notices one major feature missing from the picture. "Why is Jeff crying but you aren't?" Joe closes the album and places it back on the bookshelf without answering. "I asked you a question!"

"I'm not crying because there was no need to." Joe's comment causes Felicia to shiver. "That's cold Joe."

"It's not cold. In my lifetime I realized that no matter how hard you work or try, nothing ever goes the way you plan it." In an instant, Joe is tripped by Felicia's tail and pinned down by the cat woman. The human is entranced by the glow from the fireplace as it shines off of Felicia's eyes. _What is happening?_ Felicia begins to descend towards the prone Joe who frees his arms and stops the falling cat by bracing her shoulders up. "What are you doing? Don't tell me you're drunk too…"

"I'm not drunk." Fumes Felicia as she remains locked above Joe. "You said 'no matter how hard you work or try, nothing ever goes the way you plan it right? Well, I'm trying to show you how easy it is to accomplish something and you are preventing me from doing so."

"And what would that be?" questions the defensive Joe as he pulls Felicia off of him. "Never mind."

"No, what is it?" The cat woman quickly moves her face in front of Joe's and nips his nose with a playful bite. "Wha?" Felicia starts to laugh uncontrollably as she falls into Joe's arms. _I knew she wasn't herself… Damn! Just how much catnip did Jeff let her use?_ Joe carries Felicia up to her bed and looks at the sleeping kitty who curls up on contact with the soft mattress. _I think I finally understand what Donovan was talking about protecting something._ The human fighter pulls a blanket over the now sleeping Felicia and heads for the door. Joe stops to take one last look before shutting the door behind him.

Just north of the city in a snowy field, Donovan and Anita wait for a sign of Joe's arrival as the sun begins to rise over the horizon. "He's not coming…" whispers Anita as Donovan grabs his sword and stares into the enchanted blade. Several voices speak to Donovan as the blade lights up with the rising sun. The sword goes silent as a faint outline of a lone traveler walks towards the pair. "So, you have decided to train with me?"

"Yea, why the hell not?" The trio walks past an isolated mailbox and Joe tosses an envelope down the chute. _I'll be back soon guys…_ Donovan and Anita have gained a large lead ahead of Joe as he runs after them. "Wait up!"

Several days into the New Year, Jeff requested for his parents to meet him in the living room about a matter of great urgency. The tech wiz hands his parents a letter just as they ask where their older son has disappeared to. "What do you mean he dropped out of college!" screams the father as he crumples up the letter and hurls it across the room nearly hitting Joe's sleeping cat. "Get him out here now and I don't want any crap about cat women or whatever!"

Jeff sighs as the sleeping cat wakes up and jumps down from the bookshelf. "You already know this, but this is Felicia, Joe's 'pet' cat." The friendly animal meows as it transforms from playful house cat into an unnatural being. "And this is Felicia, Joe's cat woman friend." The parents are left speechless as Felicia sits down on the floor and scratches her ear.

_**To be continued!

* * *

**_

Trailer for the next episode… 

Jeff: What is Joe thinking telling me to make a satellite?

Felicia: When did you start to question his knowledge?

Lucy: Bah, who knows if this is a creditable idea?

Jeff: Well, if the government doesn't want to loan me NASA's Space Shuttle, I guess I'll just have to ask Phobos for help.

_Next time on_ Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… **Episode 22: Preparing for the Worse**

Joe: Heh, guess I'm not as weak as you… oof!

Donovan: Silence!

* * *

**Author Note:** One chapter down, only one more to go! Sorry for the short chapter. 


	22. Preparing for the Worse

**Author Note:** The final chapter has begun. I will attempt to wrap up this story to the best of my ability before slapping "complete" on it.

* * *

_Last time… surprise gifts, a renewed link between friends, and a request from Donovan, the Dark Hunter for Joe to train and prepare for the arrival and upcoming battle with Pyron. However, Joe's sudden departure from his senior year in college with only a small letter explaining his actions frightened his parents with no way to calm them down. In order to help his own brother, Jeff revealed the existence of cat women to their less than believing parents. _

_With the cover blown about Felicia and her friends secretly living in the family camp for the past six months, just how exactly will they pay off their debt to them?_

_**Episode 22: Preparing for the Worse**_

The winter weather came to aquickendas spring hit the city early. While the weather continued to improve in the opening days of April, the eight cat women have been hired to work in the restaurant as a way to pay off their use of the family's camp. The previously non-feline employed restaurant started a new slogan to show off their new crowd pleasing workers. "Come to Zammer Diner: We are the only restaurant in the world where our waitresses are hotter than our food!" There was no need for worry since Jeff was allowed to keep his "toys" and in the case of an "overly friendly" customer, he could dispose of the individual with minimal damage. Well, except for the occasional toss out of a window.

Meanwhile, Joe has spent the last four months training under Donovan in the wilderness of upstate New York. The chaotic human hurries through the woods dodging tree after tree as he looks back to find Donovan's sword Dhylec closing in. _Why did Donovan forbid me from using my Chaos form?_ His shoes are covered in mud and his clothes and hair are a mess. Joe has not returned home since he began his training in the dead of winter.

_No sleep for two weeks, no food or water for days, at this rate, I'm going too…_As the human runs for his life, he trips on an exposed root and lands in a large puddle of leaves, mud, and other forest bred crap. _Aww man! _The spinning blade passes over the puddle as Joe peeks out to see the sword slice through the forest and away from his location. _It's about time I caught a break…_ The contents of the puddle have coated Joe in a natural form of camouflage making him invisible as the enchanted sword returns and flies past him. _Hmm, maybe now I can get the upper hand on mister hot hunter…_

The sun begins to set as Joe sneaks back into the woods, Donovan sits down on a stump and begins to meditate while Anita sleeps peacefully on the ground near her protector. The camouflaged Joe crawls his way to a bush behind Donovan and takes great care so that he remains hidden. _Here goes nothing!_ Joe explodes out of the bush with a powerful jump towards his teacher only to get smacked in the face by one of Donovan's large beads. The collision ends Joe's attack by sending the human into the ground. "That's cheating! You said that you wouldn't use any of your special moves…"

"Again, you prove your own weakness." Donovan stands up and orders Dhylec to return to his side. "You cannot believe everything your opponent says even if the advice is true." The blade appears in a flash of light and the hunter takes the weapon by its handle. He looks down at the weary and exhausted human and frowns. "You may have found your purpose, but even after four months you are still unable to unleash the power without relying on that wasteful transformation." The fed up hunter raises the sword over his head as Joe tries to move his arms only to find his body will not respond.

_This can't be the end!_ Several self created images of Pyron destroying the world's cities and killing off both human and Darkstalkers mix in with his own memories of his life and the cat women. "Prepare yourself human!" Donovan drops the couch sized blade down onto the weak human only to have the sword stop prematurely. "What is this?" Donovan finds that Joe has caught the sacred blade between his hands and stopped the fatal strike.

Blood starts to exit Joe's bare hands as he gets to his feet stunning the long time hunter. _This cannot be happening! No one has the power to divert the Dhylec while I am holding it._ An unseen kick to the head dislodges Donovan's hand off of the sword causing the heavy blade to fall into the soft ground. Joe releases his grip in order to prevent his hands from being cut off and watchesas the Dhylec hits the ground. "So, you were able to knock my own weapon out of my hand…" The hunter's beads begin to change as Donovan enters a series of hand motions that Joe recognizes.

_He's going to freeze me unless I do something…_ A half naked female spirit with long hair appears from behind Donovan as his beads crystallize and surround the hunter in a diamond formation. "What are you doing human?" Joe has grabbed onto the buried sword's handle with both hands and struggles to pull out the heavy, yet powerful weapon from the ground. "Only someone of great will can lift that sword. Just prepare yourself to be sealed forever in an icy grave." The ice spirit locks onto Joe and blows a burst of extremely cold air at him.

The ground under the incoming attack freezes almost instantly as the wind closes in. Joe groans loudly as the attack smashes directly into him. The spirit fades away as Donovan's view of his attack is blocked by falling snow. "He had great potential for a mere human. Now he's frozen in time…"

"Who's frozen?" The falling snow is blown away by a gust of wind revealing a wall of ice fused with soil of the forest. Joe kicks down the crappy wall and struggles to catch his breath while using the freed sword as a cane. "Damn, I really thought I going to die for a sec."

"How? You shouldn't be able to wield my Dhylec so easily!" Joe looks up at his killer teacher as he explains his last ditch survival technique. "It's simple really. I knew I couldn't draw out the sword, so I transferred some of my own energy into the Dhylec to kick up enough ground to absorb the ice attack."

"Well, any other tricks you want to show me before I kill you?" Joe chuckles as he once again gains a grip on the sword. "Yea, I'm able to finally use my power without 'going chaotic' anymore!" The nearly drained warrior's eyes turn aqua as his hair remains brown confusing Donovan. "What's so different? You just changed your eyes…"

"Why don't you just watch?" Joe picks up the massive sword with both hands and holds it straight into the air surprising the hunter. A white aura surrounds Dhylec as Joe's arms begin to bulge. "Since you tried to kill me, I thought I'd return the favor! **CHAOS SLASH!**" Joe hops off of his feet and slams the sword into the ground with enough force to cause a small earthquake. A shockwave of energy exits the point of impact and flows towards the surprised Donovan who raises his beads to defend himself. This attack uses up the rest of Joe's energy causing the Dhylec to rebel and throw its temporary user away just as the wave crashes into Donovan setting off a major explosion.

Back in the city, the restaurant has closed for the night and the cats are busy cleaning up when Felicia drops a plate in the kitchen shattering it to pieces. "Are you ok?" asks a concerned Grace as Felicia returns to reality. "Yea, I'm fine…" answers Felicia as she begins to pick up the pieces of the broen plate. _What was that? Something's happened to Joe…_ The cat woman wraps her hand around the necklace Joe gave her and looks at the night sky. _I hope nothing bad has happened to him._

The area around the ground splitting attack has been devastated. Trees have been torn out of the ground and smashed into splinters, a large trench shows the exact path of Joe's assault, and the only part of the area untouched by the attack is the ground Anita is sleeping on because the young psychic was able to successfully protect herself with a powerful barrier. Donovan appears from nowhere with a few cuts on his body but finds a severally harmed Joe only a few feet behind his sword. _Even though he was able to wield Dhylec, the few moments he had control were enough to cause a backlash due to his lack of energy._

Donovan reaches into his garments and pulls out a small bottle containing a fast acting healing potion. "Can't let you die on me human." Joe's open wounds heal instantly as the potion is absorbed into his body. The human is busy sleeping and snoring loudly as his makeshift camouflage begins to crack away from his clothes. Donovan fails to draw his own sword from the ground to finish the job. _The human has temporarily sealed my control over Dhylec. Whatever he used as motivation must be extremely powerful if he could pierce through my defenses and harm me with my own blade._ Joe continues to sleep not knowing that Donovan is still standing over him. "Enjoy this time off human… because tomorrow, we start the **hard** stuff."

While the trainer and teacher both get some well deserved rest, their target passes by Mars on its travels to the little blue planet. A government funded satellite is busy taking photos of Mars when the transmission to NASA is abruptly cut ending the multimillion dollar project. News of the "faulty" equipment reaches the news networks and soon just about everyone knows about the latest space failure.

"So, that's why my brother asked me to build my own satellite with Huitzil technology…" Comments Jeff as he watches the late night news from his new workshop in the garage. Working with declassified documents from the internet and discarded Huitzil components, the wiz kid is busy constructing a satellite that is the size of a small van. "Can you hand me that laser cutter Lucy?" The cat woman tosses the high tech piece of equipment to Jeff only to miss his hand causing the tool to activate and slice the project in half. A vein bulges in Jeff's head as Lucy bolts for the door. _Six weeks of hard work… DOWN THE FUCKING DRAIN!_

"Uh, I don't think we should bother him for a while." Squeaks Lucy as she shuts the door leading into the garage from the kitchen. The other cats look up at the nervous Lucy as they question her behavior. "You have been spending more time around him since that little incident on Halloween." Laughs Grace. "Are you starting to like him?"

"No way!" The defiant Lucy's face tells another story. Her face is beet red as Pico laughs at her "adult" friend. "Lucy likes Jeff!" Furious with the young cat girl, Lucy tries to grab Pico only to watch the small Darkstalker escape her grip. "Get back here you little twerp!" Lucy chases after Pico throughout the house as they nearly trample Felicia who strolls into the kitchen unaware of what has just happened.

"Did I miss something Grace?" The eldest cat woman shakes her head as Felicia finds her rocking Alto to sleep. "Do you remember when we all met Felicia?"

"Of course! It was right after Pyron's defeat and that manager signed a contract with me." The superstar feline leans against the wall as the green necklace dangles from her neck. "Since then, you, Alto, Lucy and the others have made me feel welcomed, even if the world is against us."

"You shouldn't talk like that Felicia. We are not in our world and the people we have met so far have been very kind to us."

"You're right Grace." A small twinkle begins to glow in Felicia's necklace as the night rolls on.

However, the events on this earth have not gone unnoticed. From the safety of the Darkstalker universe in Demitri's castle, Dami watches as his chaotic rival attempts to train under Donovan. "So, that guy is attempting to gain complete control over the Chaos Stone… how nice." The inverted version of Joe enjoys watching the only person who has the potential to kill him struggle to gain the same level of strength that he has already achieved. "The more power he obtains, the sweeter it will taste when I take that power away!"

"Master Dami…?"

"Hmm? What is it Helicia?" The black furred, maroon eyed and haired cat woman walks into Dami's redesigned throne room and stands at her "master's" side. A viewing portal shows a full "chaotic" Joe sparing against Donovan in the forest. Another large section of trees are blown away when Donovan's "Divine Stomp" mixes with Joe's "Chaos Breaker" resulting in a massive explosion. "If you are concerned about that human, don't be."

"Why? He's getting stronger each day and that human was the one who defeated Gallon." Dami scratches his head as he stares at his own cat woman. "Last time I checked, you were the one who knocked out my loyal general and dragged his sorry ass back here."

"Yea well, I felt like it." The black cat begins to purr as Dami scratches his evil pet's ears. "I don't mind you having some fun but I'm going to ask you not to go back to that world for a while."

"Why?"

"My master plan is falling into place and I don't want my beautiful kitty getting involved." The Felicia look-alike leaves Dami for the bedroom as the shadow slinging warrior shuts the door behind his late night plaything. "So, are we ready to conduct my plan?"

"Yes. I will fulfill my part of our deal as long as you keep yours." A mysterious figure hides in the darkness of the castle and discusses a plan with Dami. "I want to know how you plan on keeping your half." The black haired clone of Joe snaps his fingers and opens several viewing portals showing every Darkstalker on the other earth. "Each one of those creatures will be yours to do whatever you see fit in about two months. So until then, you can enjoy making the humans on this earth suffer." The hidden figure vanishes into the darkness leaving Dami alone. "What a fool. I'm only helping that psycho because no matter who wins… I win in the end!"

**The End of Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… See you next time!

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_The story may end for now, but there is more to look for!_

A sneak peak into the next story:

With the arrival of Pyron to the earth, several more questions arise. Can the…no, will the Darkstalkers choose to defend a world that doesn't belong to them, what is the "master plan" Dami was talking about, who was the individual with Dami discussing his plan, and what does Felicia's necklace do, if anything?

Mysteries and questions continue to build as the story continues in **Darkstalkers: Chaotic War

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**Author Note:** Well, that's all folks (for now). I'm slamming the book shut on this part and taking a break from the Darkstalker fanfiction for a while. Be on the look out for the next story to hit sometime this summer.


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